Information graphics or infographics are visual representations of information, data or knowledge to present information quickly and clearly.
Infographics can come in the form of a chart, graph, or other image accompanied by minimal text and they intend to give an easily understood overview, often of a complex subject.
The use of infographics can be traced as back as the 17th century and have been used in newspapers since the beginning of print journalism.
Today, the importance of infographics is constantly increasing as they provide a powerful means of visual storytelling, which is especially useful for modern media professionals.
As more and more readers become users by swapping newspapers with smartphones and tablets, as they replace the morning rituals of the previous generations with fast clicks and scanning instead of reading, as they are bombarded with information in social media, infographics are an extremely efficient way to catch their interest and tell a complex story with a few images and some words.
Instead of spending valuable minutes of their time reading a long jargon-loaded written story (which they won’t!), audiences can consume and understand a news item in minimal time with the use of infographics.
*Infographics are 30 times more likely to be read than text articles.
*Publishers who use infographics grow traffic on average by 12%.
*People respond better to visual information than text.