What’s Old is New Again: Infographics

Like the phoenix rising from its own ashes, an infographic really is the rebirth of what trainers have been using for decades: the job aid.

Just like it sounds, an infographic is a very effective, visual way of presenting information, like a map of a subway system. The pictures help the reader quickly see patterns and trends along with key information. Because of its graphic nature, infographics are appealing to the eye and are a lot less dependent on text than more traditional job aids. Because of these things, the content contained in an infographic is much easier to grasp and implement.

Infographics typically have larger fonts than the old job aids and are limited to one or two pages.

When designing an infographic for one of your workshops:

1. Keep it quick and easy to use. Infographics should be a fast read and make it easy to grasp key information quickly. Don’t try to repeat everything in the training program in them. Just highlight the highlights! It’s a simple format that shows how to do something important that you did in training and want participants to remember.

2. Create it using the steps of a process or group the information so it’s easy for you to communicate in this abbreviated form. Think tip sheets and laminated cards like we used to create.

3. Incorporate a lot of pictures and graphics. This is what makes it fun and engaging! You can pull the graphics from your training and then they become visual reminders of that workshop’s content.

4. Reinforce the infographic by using it in other trainings. It can take more time to create an infographic so use it in multiple places. The graphic pictured here is used in two of our Master Series, several of our company’s articles and highlights the concepts from my recent book.

5. Align it with systems. Make sure your infographic aligns directly with the systems you want the learner to use as a result of the training and you’ll increase adoption of both.

When creating an infographic, don’t overthink it! The trick is to make it look more engaging–like something learners would want to hang in their cubicle. If you as a trainer can get learners to hang what you’re using as a job aid on their wall, then boom! You’ve made it! You’re going to reinforce your training.

A graphic designer often design a nice infographic quickly with their software. You can create one in a word processor, but the graphics are a bit harder to manage.

An infographic also is a great way to get people talking about you in social media such as re-pinning it on Pinterest, posting it on Facebook or tweeting the link on Twitter. That’s a great way to get your content out there, especially if you are an outside consultant.