One of the reasons why Infographics are popular is, they can be scanned quickly and sometimes, they use humor. At the same time you must make Infographics fun and entertaining. Humor may come in the form of animated characters embedded within the Infographic or in the form of textual content that uses satire, irony or wit. Nonetheless, an Infographic presents data in a fun and entertaining visual format that is easily processed. There are several academic and scientific reasons to make Infographics attractive to users.
How can Infographics be made more entertaining?
As we already know, Infographics are mostly used by people who do not like to read a lot. It is also well received by people who like textual content but like their data visually represented. With that in mind, no one likes statistics that look boring. No one also likes data that looks dry and monotonous. Adding humor to make Infographics fun and entertaining can have far reaching and successful consequences when reaching out to a target audience. In this article, let us take a look at two important studies that support the fact that you must go ahead and make your Infographics fun and entertaining.
Study points at the popularity of non-linear game-like design among infographics
Nicholas Diakopoulos, Funda Kivran-Swaine and Mor Naaman at the Rutgers University, New Jersey, presented a study titled “Playable data: characterizing the design space of game-y Infographics” at the CHI ’11 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in 2011. Their study explored the interaction between games and Infographics.1
The idea was to explore how meaningful visual analytic interactions can be embedded into game mechanics. The study also aimed to explore how this sort of visual analytic interactions impacts user behavior in the context of a data-driven graphic. They found that gamification offers a non-linear arrangement of narrative and visual data, which helps people to have more fun.
While the presentation of data in Infographics may be non-linear, the Infographic would still stick to the gamification rules and mechanics of play. The study seems to conclude that a game-y approach has more benefits in encouraging people to explore visualization of data and improve insight and learning. It also suggests that gamification and game-y Infographics increase the enjoyment of experience.
A number of companies have begun to publish Infographics that work like a quiz or even like a game, adopting a non-linear method of presentation of data. These Infographics increase the interaction between the user and the designer and help to make the process of understanding visual data more fun.
Using game-y Infographics can be a more fulfilling experience for users
Game-y Infographics can be a particularly enjoyable experience for those who seek to engage more with visual data. For instance, if you are trying to present statistics that are complex and need considerable effort from the user to arrive at a conclusion, a non-linear method of game-like design can help the user to understand the data better. Moreover, it is always more fun and enjoyable for the user.
Gamification of Infographics can increase their shareability and thus make them more viral. If you are looking for ways to make your Infographics more interactive, you could probably include game-like techniques while designing your Infographics. As shown above, studies seem to prove the point as well, that game-y Infographics increase the enjoyment of experience.
Not only youngsters, but even adults have shown their preference for game-like situations when processing information. If you are planning to get an Infographic designed, consider the game approach as well, especially if your target audience prefers non-linear presentation of data. To achieve higher engagement rate and a viral stature for your Inforaphic, make Infographics fun and entertaining.
