- October 15, 2014
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Infographics 2.0: More Captivating Content
You remember infographics 1.0, from way back in 2012 (when we trumpeted their awesome marketing potential in this post).
These fun, graphical alternatives to dull, text heavy reports and PowerPoints almost instantly became the content marketer’s new BFF. Inviting design and clever visual treatments grabbed attention in ways the old workhorses couldn’t.
But as fresh as they were, first-gen infographics were also a static medium. The new interactive variety–call it 2.0–changes all that.
Connecting Through Visualization
An interactive infographic is a graphical visualization of what is usually deep or complex data. Examples might include explaining some special technology or process you have, or presenting a detailed timeline about your company’s history, facility or product. Viewers can engage with content much like they do a web page, clicking, scrolling and exploring content at will.
As with their static counterparts, interactive versions can feature creative illustrations, stylized icons and interesting numerical or type treatments, which, on mouse-over, might serve up thought-provoking facts, statistics or other details. Adding pan and zoom features can make the experience even more engaging, keeping viewers captivated by your content for a longer period of time.
Tech watcher Karl Schutz suggests three possible scenarios that call for interactive infographics:
- Complex data visualization, which distills information into separate but interrelated layers, allowing viewers to graze or go deeply, as shown in this example from visual.ly.
- Personalized branded content, which can be used to raise a brand’s awareness or profile without focusing on one specific product or service offering, like this entertaining Family Road Trip Map from Toyota and the Huffington Post.
- Customized product explainers that let you tailor content and messaging for different customer segments, as in this excellent small business guide from Twitter.
What Price Innovation?
As you may have guessed, 2.0 interactivity comes at a price, and may, at least for now, be out of reach for many smaller businesses. Still, savvy marketers want to know when a new and innovative tool or technology appears on the scene. Like its predecessor, this newcomer could change the game again. It’s also possible that, as with video, responsive web design and other now-mainstream marketing tactics, the cost of producing interactive infographics could drop sooner, rather than later.
