Humans are visual creatures, which is where research infographics come in. An intriguing study found that 90% of information sent to the brain is visual. Indeed, people can digest pictures 60,000 times faster than text.
As a result, using research infographics is a significant and popular method of communicating complicated scientific information in a simple, easy-to-understand manner. Using proper graphics when writing your book is a terrific method to increase the efficacy and reach of your study, ensuring that it is read and understood by a larger audience.
This blog will look at the value of using research infographics, how they may help you enhance your article, and how to successfully present data in research infographics.
Table of Contents
What Exactly Is Visual Communication?
Visual communication uses visual components to convey a message, motivate change, or elicit an emotion.
There are two types of visual communication: communication design and graphic design:
- Communication design creates a message that informs, motivates, and engages the audience.
- Graphic design employs design concepts to convey a message to the intended audience in a clear and eye-catching manner.
At its foundation, visual communication is about selecting the pieces that will produce the most meaning for your audience. Text, icons, forms, graphics, and data visualisations are common examples of these elements.
- Some typical visual communication tactics include:
- Using data visualisation to demonstrate the impact of your work
- Using shapes and lines to outline processes and flows
- Using symbols and images to make information more memorable
- Using images and statistics to tell stories
- Using colour to emphasise significance and draw attention
What Are Some Examples Of Visual Communication?
You can add many good graphics and visual design elements to your communication stack. Here are a few examples of the most common:
- GIFS
- Screenshots
- Screen captures
- Videos
- Pie graphs
- Infographics
- Visualisation of data
- Presentations on slides
- Posts on social media
Visuals keep things interesting, so feel free to use more than one of the examples given above.
Image creation is wider than individuals with formal graphic design expertise or access to expensive, high-end gear. Simple screenshots are an excellent example of an easy approach to generating your image while communicating a relevant message.
Snagit is a terrific tool for transforming simple screenshots into useful photographs, films, and animated GIFs if you need help getting started using visuals to help you communicate better.
Importance of Visual Communication
The chances of your workforce consisting of employees from the same generation with the same personality type and learning style are minimal.
In today’s business, we work cross-generationally and cross-culturally with people from various walks of life with different learning styles and backgrounds.
This reality creates an intriguing set of coworkers with the benefit of numerous diverse perspectives. Of course, it also presents some important obstacles that companies and managers must overcome to connect with and engage the workforce successfully.
An individual’s reception and recall of information offered can vary substantially based on where they fall on each of the spectrums mentioned above and how the information is presented.
Integrating visual communication into your daily routine is vital because it helps to bridge the gaps left by traditional word-focused communication.
Improving your visual communication skills can assist you with the following:
- Communication efficiency
- Retention of data
What Are Some Effective Ways To Use Visuals In Your Writing?
Combine graphics with text.
A visual is not a separate element but a component of your content that works with your text. As a result, you must merge your graphics with your text logically and coherently.
You should arrange your graphics alongside the text related to them and explain what they display with captions, titles, or legends. You should also use your images to assist or illustrate your primary ideas in your text. You should not repeat information in your text and graphics but use them to complement one another.
Understand your goal
Before you include any visuals in your document, consider the following: What is your document’s core message or purpose, and how might a graphic help it? A graphic should not be considered an afterthought or a decoration but a purposeful instrument for communicating your ideas, data, or arguments.
Depending on your aim, you could use a visual to demonstrate a topic, compare possibilities, show trends, highlight significant points, or elicit emotions.
Make clear and appealing visuals.
After deciding on the type of graphic, you must build it with care and attention to detail. A good graphic should be clear, accurate, relevant, and in line with the rest of the work. Clutter, distortion, ambiguity, and extraneous features that confuse or mislead your readers should be avoided.
Colours, fonts, forms, and labels that are easy to see, understand, and remember should also be used. You can use Excel, PowerPoint, Canva, or Piktochart to design your visuals.
5 Amazing Advantages of Visual Communication
- More adaptable than spoken communication
As I indicated at the beginning of this piece, a single image can convey an idea requiring several phrases to describe in words. Furthermore, an image makes meaning to everyone, regardless of cultural, regional, ethnic, or linguistic distinctions.
For example, if you promote a product or service to an audience spread across many geographical areas and speak different languages, a picture visual could convey your message far more effectively than any form of verbal communication, especially because visual images do not cause language or cultural barriers. As a result, adopting visual communication would allow you to transmit the message to a wider range of audiences more persuasively.
- Visuals Help to Make Connections
Strong connections can be made with the correct imagery.
With today’s fast-paced lifestyles, it’s more difficult than ever to attract – and hold – attention spans. We need all the assistance we can get to ensure that people are assimilating (viewing, reading, hearing, etc.) the stuff we create.
Visuals assist us in making those connections.
These emotional and messaging-based connections are strengthened by the innovative, exciting graphics that are the foundation of marketing success. Visuals not only help brands enhance and clarify their messaging, but they also help brands consolidate their identities.
This is how companies become “household names,” instantly recognisable in the wild. That is why all digital assets owned by a corporation should be branded before publishing.
- Presentation graphics create emotional connections with the audience
It’s cliche but true that a picture is worth a thousand words. Images may elicit emotions in viewers that words cannot, allowing speakers to connect with their audience on a more visceral level. (Yes, even if your audience consists of stoic professors.)
Instead of boring data about global warming, include a few slides portraying recent floods or forest fires to emphasise your argument. Powerful imagery, such as 3D effects and visually appealing templates, connects with people and increases their interest in what you’re saying.
- Improve your message’s believability.
“Seeing is believing”. An image, a video, or a graph grabs your audience’s attention and earns their trust. A few catchy sentences about your brand will entice your target market to look your way. Still, an image or an interesting video of your product and service will ensure a positive response from your audience and help you earn their trust, for an image can reinforce the credibility of what you represent or the concept, product, service, etc. that you are attempting to promote.
- Visuals are memorable
Visuals are not only more noticeable at first glance; they are also easier to remember. When graphics accompany well-researched and useful content, it is much more likely to resonate with its audience over time.
Any piece of content’s message, including its headline(s), can be improved by relevant and memorable extra-rich media. Including graphics in any presentation improves individuals’ recall of it up to several days later by 65% and 80% in just a few hours.
Remember in elementary school when we used flashcards and other visual aids to help us learn new subjects? Because so many of us are visual learners, we can absorb and retain knowledge better, faster, and more easily using visual cues.
What Constitutes a Good Infographic?
When a reader glances at a graphic and instantly grasps the core idea, you know it’s excellent.
Good infographics are well-designed and feature the following characteristics:
- Provides clarity.
- It tells a unified story.
- Simple to scan and read.
- Well-researched and precise.
- Beautifully designed.
You may create an excellent graphic by following the instructions below:
- Choose graphics, icons, or illustrations that will help the audience understand
While words and phrases are vital in presenting information, the appropriate graphics will help your infographic stand out. Using the correct graphics in your design can help you generate content that is accessible, coherent, and compelling.
- Maintain a clear hierarchy
of addition to images; the visual hierarchy of your infographics must be considered.
Hierarchy refers to how your infographic’s content and pictures are organised and prioritised. Headers, subheaders, paragraphs, text descriptions, graphics, and your call-to-action are all examples.
A logical hierarchy in your infographic guides the user as they scan it at the most basic level. It informs readers of the most relevant stuff and displays the relationships between pieces of content in your database.
- Choose the appropriate colour scheme.
Put extra effort into your colours to bring your infographics to life.
Your infographic’s colour scheme can make or break it. Colours, in addition to forms and lines, may define the tone of an infographic and determine how it will affect your viewers. Furthermore, studies show the human brain employs colours and shapes to “detect and discriminate” objects.
- Lines, borders, colours, and forms can group related items and information.
Grouping relevant items, like visual hierarchy, might help you design a strong infographic.
Why?
Let’s go over the Gestalt rules, which describe how the human brain recognises patterns, simplifies complex visuals, and groups comparable aspects when viewing objects.
The Law of Common Region is one of these ideas. This principle defines how items within a border are seen as a group and are presumed to have some shared features or functions. An excellent infographic adheres to this principle by grouping elements with forms, borders, and lines.
- Data visualisation can be communicated via graphs and charts
Appropriately using charts and graphs is another crucial element in designing a good infographic. Aside from being simple for the eyes to read, the audience has a short learning curve because they are extremely common.
Some quick recommendations for using graphs and charts in your infographic:
- Add brief explanations or bullet points to your chart or graph. Providing facts that cannot be included in your picture also makes sense.
- Avoid using several data points that will be difficult to interpret for your audience. Bar charts, for example, should have as few as possible bars, while line graphs should have no more than four lines.
- Avoid using scatter plots and stacked bar charts as much as possible, especially if your audience is not scientific.
- Pie charts should be used sparingly because most individuals need to improve at estimating volume or area. Instead of a pie chart, the team at Storytelling with Data proposes using a horizontal bar chart organised from greatest to least (or vice versa).
Conclusion
It may sound dramatic, but images significantly increase the value of content. Visuals influence how people ingest knowledge, interpret it, recall it, and even interact with it. Visuals influence how material appears in organic search results and how people react.
Use this to your advantage and assist consumers (and search engines) in better grasping your information more quickly and efficiently by enhancing your messaging with images and other graphics.
The figures demonstrate how much better rich media performs in the wild. Use it to save money and grow your brand’s audience.