How to Create an Infographic in 4 Easy Steps

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According to Wikipedia, infographics are...

Graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly

In the last issue, you learned how to summarize your ideas for things like business plans, proposals, and progress reports in an A3 report. But sometimes you may need to get your point across quickly to a broader audience with even less text.

This is where an infographic can help. In this article, you’ll discover how you can create one in less than a day with these four, easy-to-follow steps.

1.?List Your Main Points

Unlike an A3, an infographic is less about presenting ideas to assist others in making decisions and more about presenting information to educate. In this first step, consider using index cards to write all of the main points you want to share. This is the "info" in "infographic."

The image above features an example of me organizing my thoughts for an infographic. Don't forget to make sure that your information includes answers to the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How questions.?

2.?Organize into Sections or Categories?

Now that you have your main points out of your head and onto paper, organize the information into main sections or categories. This will become the different sections of your infographic. ?

The image above is an example of me (I'm wearing the fuzzy slippers) organizing my ideas. Instead of using index cards, I used MS PowerPoint to jot down my ideas. I then printed the slides four to a page, cut them into squares, and organized them into six columns/sections.

3.?Select the Best Graphics

There are numerous ways to illustrate your information to assist your audience in visualization. This is the "graphic" in "infographic."

Graphics can include:

1. Color
2. Charts
3. Font Type and Size
4. Data/Numbers
5. Images
6. Icons

Begin sketching on a piece of paper the main sections of your infographic. Challenge yourself to think of the most effective way to use at least three of the graphic types in the above list to represent information.

Traditional infographics are laid out in a portrait orientation, but you can certainly create one in landscape orientation too. In fact, the final reports that we provide clients at my company are formatted as two-page infographics in landscape orientation so that they can easily be printed.

Some great sources for royalty-free, professional photographs include Unsplash.com, iStockPhoto.com, and Shutterstock.com.

MS PowerPoint comes with an impressive library of icons that you can further customize by color. Another great source for icons is TheNounProject.com.

You can create basic pie charts and bar graphs using MS Excel. However, you may want something more advanced like a map. Below is a sample from an infographic of statistics from my Business Infrastructure podcast created a couple of years ago. We wanted to go beyond sharing an isolated number of countries where the show is downloaded and instead visually show a color-coded world map.

4.?Create

Now that you know the information you want to present, how to organize it into sections, and the best way to make it come to life through graphics, you are ready to create a digital version of your infographic.

There are a number of relatively inexpensive online tools for creating infographics, most of which offer new users a free trial in addition to tutorials for using their software. Some tools I recommend include:

• MS PowerPoint
• Canva
• Piktochart

Piktochart is my personal favorite. In fact, it's the tool used to create the podcast infographic above. You can even watch the video below to see how Piktochart's Co-Founder, Ai Ching Goh, helped create it during a live recording on the Business Infrastructure podcast.

Additional Guidance

If you have specific questions about creating an infographic, my team and I at Equilibria, Inc. are more than happy to schedule some time and brainstorm with you. For example, you may find selecting the best chart difficult.

You can book a free 15-min discovery call to discuss that one-on-one or you can wait for the next issue where I'll share more detailed tips on chart selection.

Did you find this article helpful? If so, then subscribe so that you don't miss this next issue and continue receiving operational tips and tactics like this!?Also, consider connecting with me here on LinkedIn.

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Alicia Butler Pierre is the Founder & CEO of Equilibria, Inc. – an operations management firm specializing in business infrastructure for fast-growing small businesses. She’s the author of the two-time Amazon bestseller Behind the Fa?ade and host of the top 2% Business Infrastructure podcast. Alicia’s also an adjunct instructor of Lean Principles at Purdue University. A chemical engineer turned entrepreneur, she’s advised, designed, and optimized processes for companies including Shell Oil, Coca-Cola, and The Home Depot.