Comments on: 5 Reasons Your Infographics Are Falling Flat

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:17:07 +0000

It takes a lot of time, effort, and resources to create a great infographic. Because they are such great “link bait” businesses were quick to create them and that resulted in lots of bad ones floating around out there. An infographic is only beneficial if it provides new and useful information, is easy to understand, and has a nice design. If it’s just like another infographic that already exists- what’s the point?

By: Lori

Lori — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 02:35:23 +0000

I don’t mind a good infographic, and I don’t even mind reading ones with a lot of text if it’s interesting.

What I can’t stand are infographics with grammar and punctuation mistakes. I see this all the time, even from really well known sites! Please, please, please proofread your infographic.

By: kimmieoftroy

kimmieoftroy — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 01:42:59 +0000

Geoff hit the nail on the head … good infographics use data to tell a story. Without data behind it, they’re just illustrations with text. For anyone who truly loves good storytelling with numbers, http://flowingdata.com/ always has fantastic discussions about visualizing data. And he (Nathan Yau) will tell you, The New York Times is one of the best at useful infographics.

Well, as far as communicating the info goes anyway. I have no idea about SEO & linky stuff. ;-)

By: Brankica U.

Brankica U. — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:19:52 +0000

Hey Lisa, you really made great points and my favorite has nothing to do with infographics per se, but the fact that we are hyperconsumers :)
I only made one so far, nothing special, but it was really funny and I got a lot of traffic from it :) But after reading this I will try to be even more careful when I make my next one!

By: Lyena Solomon

Lyena Solomon — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:24:29 +0000

Lisa,
I like good infographics which i can count on one hand. I roll my eyes when I see a long, mostly text-filled, picture. I do not want to read. The reason for an infographic is to tell a story in pictures. Of course, text is necessary but not paragraphs of it. We already have blogs.

I think, another requirement for the creator is to be an artist, to see data and patterns in an unusual way. There has to be a main point to any infographic – why do I care? A lot of them don’t.

Maybe, the reason you don’t like them is because there are not that many good ones.

By: Michelle Robbins

Michelle Robbins — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:10:27 +0000

Thank you. Really just thanks. I hate infographics. Because well, they aren't. They really should be called wordographs or linkographics. Most of what I see suffers from your points (1) and (5). Visualizing data properly is pretty important. But because marketers only put these things together as "content pieces" to get attention and links, not because the data matters or how that data is displayed matters, we're left with loads of pretty things to look at. And maybe that is giving the people what they want ... but I doubt it. And I suspect algorithms much smarter than all of us will sort that out and these "pieces of content" will cease to pack the punch they currently do. I also have to say that anyone actually serious about visually representing data for purposes of well, displaying data vs. just grabbing attention, should really get very familiar with the work of Edward Tufte.

By: Syed

Syed — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:58:52 +0000

“….but there’s no punchline or call to action”

Perhaps, the ‘toilet seat’ infographic wasn’t meant to convince or even educated anyone. The objective of that particular piece and many others alike could have been just to amuse its audience and get many ‘likes’ and sharing, which seems like this particular one did well.

I think to be able to conclude what’s really “falling flat” you have to know the main goal of the infographic and then measure the outcome.

By: Rob Jones

Rob Jones — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:50:54 +0000

Hey Lisa,

My name’s Rob. And I commissioned that “so what” toilet piece, for my sins.

Thanks for this article, which is pretty useful to me as someone who runs a number of infographics, and for various reasons, on our blog. A big part of this strategy is, admittedly, for linking and sharing purposes. For this one, the reason we ran it was for a couple of reasons. First, it was (as you mentioned) meant to be kind of quirky and funny, and reveal that side of the company’s personality. Second, it was meant to show that elements in the home, which we write quite a bit about being a building materials company, are often taken as a given, but are actually pretty dynamic and constantly evolving.

The evolution of how homes, not just indoor plumbing (or flooring for that matter, which is our real business), have developed to become more in line with the culture that creates them is often missed by the average buyer. In the 21st century, this idea of evolution and adaptation is pretty important as a means of determining what life at home will look like in the future, and what kinds of products are likely to have staying power. That’s the underlying message that we sought to communicate with this fluffy little piece of ours.

That theme is one of the key threads running through every piece of content we publish. So, in that sense you’re absolutely right – every piece of content should play into a mission of some kind. Really, this graphic was a light-hearted, and subtle way of approaching that larger idea in a quirky sort of way.

Since it is a pretty big idea, and the presentation is very light, it seems that for you, we missed it. Not everyone can get a hit record every time. But, that’s the nature of content, it seems to me; trying to communicate big ideas in different ways to see what resonates best. Sometimes, it falls flat, as it did for you this time.

But, I think you made an important point about showing and telling. Maybe drawing out some of the points made above in this comment of mine in a more overt way would have helped to make this piece more effective, being quirky, but also having something overt to say.

Thanks again for the article, and I hope that our content will not cause you to stab yourself in the face in the future. :-)

By: Geoff

Geoff — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:23:00 +0000

For me, most infographics are made of fail because they are essentially illustrated blog posts. The Pinterest graphic above is a prime example – it would be much more useful if the text were searchable, copyable, indexable and the links clickable. Instead, it’s a pretty picture.

You only really need an infographic (IMO) when the story is data, and the graphic helps tell that story. Prime example: http://halfblog.net/2011/11/12/disparity-and-greed/

There are some great points in this post I do wish people paid attention to though. I could have done without the visual of you stabbing yourself in the face though.

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:13:30 +0000

I am guilty of making some shitty infographics. They sucked so much because I was thinking of only getting links from them. Not about finding a real cause to support, or thinking about what people really want to share.

One infographic that actually kicked ass was about legalizing marijuana (http://www.rehab-programs.org/infographics/marijuana/). It was also a shitty looking infographic but people love weed, and hate the government. That’s a great combination.