Information design and data visualization are concepts that every marketer needs to be familiar with. It is time to dig into these and see how to use them. These are a link between graphic designers and content writers. They bridge the gap between explaining something in plain text and presenting it in the form of a diagram.
When you hear the term ‘information design’, do you straight away think about infographics? If you do, you are halfway correct. The information design process includes the usage of infographics, but it involves a lot more than just that.
It is a misconception that information designs are the same as data visualizations. Although that’s not entirely false, there is a significant difference between the two. This post will define effective information design and why it is important to create marketing content.
What is Information Design?
Information design is a diagram that’s created in the process of telling a story based on data and facts. In other words, it is a storytelling tool. It represents data in a structured but diagrammatic way.
When you need to present data for a specific purpose and do not want to spend too many words describing it, you can use an information design process. In the process, you inform the audience about a data set and explain its specific parts. The data has already been concluded, and the design presents the conclusions.
On the other hand, data visualizations are raw data presented in a way that allows the viewer to derive their own conclusions. These can be evolving visuals that change with any new data found. When new information is added, a data visualization may change its form. But an information design, once created, does not need to be updated when further discoveries are made. This is because an information design process brings together the collected and analyzed data at a specific time.
An effective information design or infographic is technically a type of visualization. They also include data visualization but are more diagrammatic looking in nature. For instance, if you build a good-looking report, you can call it an information design. Based on these definitions, you cannot blame someone for using information design principles and data visualizations interchangeably. In fact, there is a word coined to combine both concepts, and that is information visualization.
What is the Importance of Information Design?
There are several advantages of using effective information designs in your brand’s marketing strategies.
1. Enhance User Experience
The most significant advantage of using information design principles in marketing content is enhancing user experience. They make the information you want to give out attractive and good-looking. When your content looks beautiful, viewers will be willing to spend more time reading and digesting it. This means they will spend more time on your landing page, familiarizing themselves with your brand and what it has to offer.
2. Increase Search Engine Optimization
When viewers spend more time gazing at your content, Google bots will increase the value of your web pages. Using information design principles in your YouTube videos to engage them will get more watch time. Your site’s bounce rate will drop if you use them in your website content. This means information designs help to enhance your overall search engine optimization.
3. Explain Your Message Clearly
It is easier for viewers to grasp information given out in an information design than that which is explained in the form of long, plain text paragraphs. This is because an effective information design is more visual and appealing than plain text. Human beings have the tendency to get distracted after a few seconds of reading monotonous content. But if they have an interesting diagram in front of them explaining a story or concept, they are likely to focus on it for a slightly longer time.
4. Increase the Shareability of Your Content
When people see something interesting and easy to understand, they like to share it with others. Using information designs in your content will entice viewers to share it with their friends and peers. People want to show off that they know something interesting and informative. When they find this kind of content within a brand’s advertisement or landing page, they will look for ways to show it to others in their network.
It is effortless to share content when posted on social media. If you use information designs in your Facebook posts, the posts have a high chance of going viral.
Types of Information Design
We literally have information and data all around us in this digitized world. We need to gather data for almost everything, even if it’s not related to running a business. People working in different professions have to collect data relevant to their field. Many of us are involved in building data for our personal lives.
For instance, you might be making a list of the grocery items you need to buy for the week. That’s also a form of preparing data for your personal use. A secretary in an office could be preparing data about visitors from client organizations to a company’s office. That’s a form of data to be used in business operations.
Our devices and apps are also constantly collecting data about the websites we browse, the products we buy online, the locations we visit, how our health condition is, and other stuff from our daily routines.
Information designs play an important role in the flow of all data types. They place chunks of relevant information together to effortlessly understand it by whoever is concerned with it. Most effective information designs are visual, but some are also sensory. Some types of information design processes are even interactive through smell and sound.
Following is a list of some different types of information designs. You will be surprised to know how many forms of content fall under the umbrella of effective information designs.
- Curated information built upon a story is a type of information design. Examples of this include IKEA manuals, infographics, and recipe books.
- Searchable information that’s accessed through search parameters and search filters. Examples include websites, search engines, and indexed reports.
- Educational resources, either interactive or static. For example, exhibits and displays in museums, online education portals, and textbooks.
- Visual information that’s displayed in a snackable way. This includes explainer videos, documentaries, and video tutorials.
- Wayfinding, such as digital maps, touchscreen maps in shopping malls, and escape plans in hotels.
- Health and safety designs include digital patient medical histories, hospital triage apps, and CT scans.
- Sensory information designs include music apps and 4D experiences in cinemas.
Examples of Information Design
Successful businesses make use of information design principles in their website content. If the website is built on a platform that makes it easy to add content, marketers do not have to go through a hard time explaining how to create information designs to the web developer. They can simply get them designed by their graphic designers and content writers and publish them on the web pages.
Users who build a website on Strikingly can do the same. The user-friendly editor interface of Strikingly allows anyone to add or edit any form of content on their own. You don’t need any coding or programming skills to revise your web pages built on Strikingly. We have a simple drag-and-drop interface that allows you to make instant changes to your site.
Whether it’s a description of a product’s features or a flowchart to describe your services, you can publish it on your Strikingly website within a few seconds. Simply grab the image file with your cursor and drop it onto the respective web page’s editor. You can even rearrange the content components to make your page look neater.
The pictures below show a few examples of information designs posted on websites built on Strikingly.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Now that you know that information designs make your content more appealing and easy to understand, why not start using them across your marketing platforms? If you do not have an attractive and professional website yet to present your business, you can immediately create one on Strikingly by registering on our landing page. Don’t forget to chat with us to let us know of your experience of building, publishing, and maintaining a site on our platform. Our customer support staff is available 24/7 to listen to your success stories via live chat. We value your input and love to hear stories from our users. After all, it’s the success of your business that makes our platform grow and prosper!
