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Why your Brain Craves Infographics

Infographics are everywhere
but what made them so successful?
This infographic exposes the science behind the boom
The use of visualized information has increased…
400%
in literature[1]
(since 1990)
 
9900%
on the internet[2]
(since 2007)
 
142%
in newspapers[3]
(between
1985 & 1994)
 
Eye mask
Eye iris

This is because we are

‘visually wired’

Small brain

almost

50%

of your brain

is involved in

visual processing[5]

 
Small eyes

70%

of all your

sensory receptors

are in your eyes[4]

 
Eye watch

we can get

the sense of a

visual

scene

in less than

1/10 of a second[6]

 
It only takes us 150ms for a symbol to be processed + 100ms to attach a meaning to it[7, 8]
Falling rocks  

Infographics help because

we suffer from information overload:

We receive

5x

as much information

today as we did

in 1986.[9]

 

34 gigabytes

or 100,500 words

– the amount of information

we consume outside of work

on an average day.[10]

 

On average

users only read

28%

of words per visit.

[11]

 
80%
 
Infographics counter information overload because...

They're more engaging

More accessible:

A study found that when it comes to comprehension rates of medicine labels:

Poison

70%

rate of understanding for labels with text only [13]

 
Pills
95%

rate of understanding for labels with text and pictures

 
Tent 1
People following directions with text and illustrations do
323% better
than people following directions without illustrations.[14]
 
Tent 2
More persuasive:
A study conducted at the Wharton School of Business found that:
50% of the audience were persuaded by a purely verbal presentation  
67% of the audience were persuaded by the verbal presentation that had accompanying visuals  
Adding pictures of brain scans and mentioning cognitive neuroscience make people more inclined to believe what they are reading[15]  
Lady

Easier to recall[16]

People remember:

 

Infographics are

Eat

EASY TO DIGEST

Well done

FUN TO SHARE

Crazy

AND EXTREMELY ENGAGING

After all, you've been reading this for
It's no wonder that infographics have been so successful.
 


Sources
3 Zacks, J., Levy, E., Tversky, B., Schinao, D. (2002). Graphs in Print, Diagrammatic Representation and Reasoning, London: Springer-Verlag.
4 Merieb, E. N. & Hoehn, K. (2007). Human Anatomy & Physiology 7th Edition, Pearson International Edition.
5 Merieb, E. N. & Hoehn, K. (2007). Human Anatomy & Physiology 7th Edition, Pearson International Edition.
6 Semetko, H. & Scammell, M. (2012). The SAGE Handbook of Political Communication, SAGE Publications.
7 Thorpe, S., Fize, D. & Marlot, C. (1996). Speed of processing in the human visual system, Nature, Vol 381.
8 Holcomb, P. & Grainger, J. (2006). On the Time Course of Visual Word Recognition, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol 18.
9 Alleyne, R. (11 Feb 2011). Welcome to the information age – 174 newspapers a day. The Telegraph.
11 Nielsen, J. (2008). How Little Do Users Read?
12 Green, R. (1989). The Persuasive Properties of Color, Marketing Communications.
13 Dowse, R. & Ehlers, M. (2005). Medicine labels incorporating pictograms: Do they influence understanding and adherence?, Patient Education and Counseling, Vol 58, Issue 1.
14 Levie, W. J. & Lentz, R. (1982). Effects of text illustrations: A review of research, Educational Communication and Technology.
16 Lester, P. M. (2006). Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication.