Infographics can make any complex information understandable – this is approximately the view of many of its customers and creators. But confused or incorrectly composed infographics in interactive dashboard service only interfere with the perception of the material and scare readers away – in this case, you get anti-advertising for your own money. Here are examples of mistakes that infographic authors make while providing interactive dashboard service.
1 A card that needs 3 more cards to read
To understand something from this infographic, you first need to look at 3 maps in the left corner and remember what three shades indicate the region of interest to you. And then lay these colors on top of each other. True, the scheme does not explain all the combinations of colors, so you have to dilute the colors in a jar to find out what the mixture of pink and blue looks like. Then you remember the new color and look for it on the big map. And then you will know the indicators of any region – if by then you do not forget what all of this means at all. However, it will not come to this – readers will simply skip too complicated infographics.
Too complicated graphics format
Radar charts look beautiful and useful when you need to evaluate something by several indicators or compare two products. “A regular bar chart would be much more convenient than a complicated infographic. For each topic, you should choose the optimal format for the infographic”, says data visualization gurus.
Errors in infographics
The author of the chart either wrote the wrong percentage of the poor, or incorrectly portrayed him. After all, 76% is a little more than 3/4, and on the chart we see something completely different. It is unlikely that the World Bank consciously decided to deceive readers, but rather someone was mistaken. Programs for preparing presentations or infographics can also spoil the result due to a failure. Therefore, even a professional designer should once again check all the data when the work is ready.
Infographics that confuse, not explain
Too much information in small print
Infographics are created to clearly explain a complex topic. Therefore, if it confuses the reader even more, drawing anything makes no sense. For example, this infographic does not explain how the movement of the cochlea was calculated, or why such calculations are needed. But there are many incomprehensible formulas – with the same success they could be written in the text. And the stylization of the manuscript does not fit the topic.
Including much information could be enough for a small book, but the authors squeezed everything into one infographic. Understanding the characteristics of dozens of organizations and the relationships between them is a difficult task for an unprepared reader. People simply don’t remember anything from what they saw – because there is too much information placed randomly. Which of the organizations is more, who influences what – all this remains a mystery.
To see the text, you will need a very large screen – otherwise you will have to zoom in multiple times. But the information is scattered haphazardly, and in this case you simply won’t know where to look further. Therefore, for users of phones, tablets and even laptops, this infographic is useless – they simply can’t see anything.
Complex diagrams instead of a simple picture
The number of phones in comparison with newspapers and TVs, the popularity of various operating systems and phone models, the number of SMS, and the preferences of Internet users. Instead of several slides or one slide with the most important numbers, you can depict everything at once with the help of diagrams. As a result, infographics turned into a heap of pie charts and numbers that do not explain anything. There is so much information that it’s hard to single out the main thing. Readers who want to quickly understand the features of the mobile market, such graphics will disappoint.
Data Visualization Gurus 