What are the essential steps to creating an interactive infographic?

1 Define your goals and audience

Before you start designing your interactive infographic, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and who you want to reach. What is the main message or story you want to convey? What is the purpose or objective of your interactive infographic? Is it to inform, educate, entertain, or persuade? Who are your target users? What are their demographics, interests, motivations, and challenges? How will they access and use your interactive infographic? These questions will help you define your goals and audience, which will guide your content, design, and interactivity choices.

2 Gather and analyze your data

The next step is to collect and process the data that will support your message or story. You can use various sources of data, such as surveys, reports, studies, databases, or websites, depending on your topic and scope. You need to verify the accuracy, relevance, and reliability of your data, and filter out any unnecessary or misleading information. You also need to analyze your data and identify the key insights, patterns, or trends that you want to highlight in your interactive infographic. You can use tools such as spreadsheets, charts, or statistics to help you organize and visualize your data.

3 Choose your format and tools

Once you have your data ready, you need to decide how you will present it in an interactive way. You need to choose a format that suits your goals, audience, and data, such as a map, a timeline, a quiz, a game, or a dashboard. You also need to choose the tools that will help you create and publish your interactive infographic, such as online platforms, software, or libraries. Some examples of popular tools for creating interactive infographics are Tableau, Infogram, Canva, or D3.js. You need to consider the features, functionalities, and limitations of each tool, as well as your own skill level and budget.

4 Design your layout and graphics

The next step is to design the layout and graphics of your interactive infographic. You need to follow the principles of visual hierarchy, contrast, alignment, and balance to create a clear and coherent structure for your content. You also need to use colors, fonts, icons, images, and animations that are consistent, appealing, and appropriate for your message, data, and audience. You need to make sure that your graphics are not only attractive, but also accurate, informative, and easy to understand. You can use tools such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or Sketch to help you design your graphics.

5 Add your interactivity and functionality

The final step is to add the interactivity and functionality to your infographic. You need to think about how you will enable the users to interact with your data and graphics, such as by clicking, hovering, scrolling, dragging, or zooming. You also need to think about what kind of feedback, options, or customization you will provide to the users, such as tooltips, filters, menus, or sliders. You need to make sure that your interactivity and functionality are intuitive, responsive, and accessible for your users. You can use tools such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or jQuery to help you add your interactivity and functionality.