Survey Data: Using Infographics To Enhance Your Survey Insights

Having created your survey, and then distributed, gathered and analysed its data, you’ll be looking to report on your findings.

Considering that the role of the survey report is to describe the survey, its results and any patterns or trends, the use of visuals are crucial to the engagement and understanding of those reading it, particularly those that need to take decisions and actions based on that data.

While most people creating surveys will be familiar with survey visuals including graphs and chart types including Area, Bar, Column, Line, Pie and Gauge charts, they may be less so with the wider range of illustrations and graphics that make up infographics.

So, what are infographics and how can they benefit the understanding and interpretation of your survey data?

Well, this is something we’ll go on to explore in more detail in this piece. So, read on to find out more.

Ways in which infographics benefit your research

Given the ability of the brain to process things more easily and quickly in visual rather than text format, it’s not hard to appreciate how good infographics are for aiding understanding.

However, visual graphics are also a powerful way to communicate your results and increase awareness.

Subsequently, a well-designed infographic can capture the attention of your target audience and engage them, which is particularly beneficial if you need to reach lots of people quickly with your findings.

There are three reasons why infographics are ideal for this:

1. They’re attention grabbing

In today’s fast-moving world of technology where audiences have ever shorter attention spans, your survey report is having to battle against a barrage of other information and messages.

Consequently, unless the audience you’re reaching out to has a vested interest in your survey findings, you’ll struggle to get much traction, unless you can make an emotional or personal connection with them through the material you’re presenting and get them to engage with it.

An eye-catching infographic can do a great job in stopping someone in their tracks, making even the most mundane of subject data appealing to those that come into contact with it.

2. They’re simpler to digest

Compared with text, because the data is presented in a more concise way, it’s much easier to read and process the information with an infographic. And if your subject matter is complicated, a visual representation can make it much simpler to comprehend too.

A visual depiction encourages viewers to browse the content and collate bits of information that they can easily digest and retain. This also helps to make the experience much more engaging.

The appeal of infographics has also grown due to the use of storytelling, which relies on a combination of graphics, data and text. This is a much more effective way of engaging your audience, than just relying on a vast collection of statistical information.

3. They’re easy to share

Another reason for the growing popularity of infographics in surveys and research is that visual content that is easier to grasp and is more engaging, is also far more likely to be shared.

However, as with any content, it will have a shelf life. Therefore, repurposing your survey results into a visual graphic can help extend the life of those findings, by providing fresh content and opening up new marketing channels including Pinterest and Instagram.

Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are also popular social media sites for sharing images. Subsequently, as more people turn to these sites for fresh news, your infographic will be there waiting to be found and shared.

Publishing the results of your survey in the form of an infographic will not only increase your reach and the chance of your content being shared virally, but it will also help to enhance overall awareness of your brand.

So, having talked about the benefits of infographics, it’s helpful to look into how you would go about designing one.

What helps to make a good infographic

From Visme and Venngage to Canva, Piktochart and more. With the growing use of infographics, there are more tools than ever before for designing your infographic.

While these sites offer templates that can be easily customised, to really stand out from the crowd you might be better offer getting your web or graphic designer to create something truly unique.

However, whatever approach you decide to go with there are some basic design tips you need to be thinking about:

Try to keep things concise

While you're likely to have a lot of data that you want to share, be careful not to overwhelm your viewers with too much information.

Try to keep everything short and concise, by presenting your key findings only. And if you need to include text, make sure you use short sentences and phrases only.

Focus on a central theme of your story

You don’t have to tell the whole story in your infographic, just enough to engage readers, so they’ll click on any links in the content to find out more about your research.

To help nurture this, select a central theme that fits with your story.

Maintain an easy content flow

Having grabbed their attention, to help keep readers engaged, you need to employ a visual hierarchy that keeps them moving from one section to the next.

To help with this, look to vary your shapes and sizes, and use contrasting colours to focus in on the most important aspects of your content.

Why you should try creating an infographic with your survey data

Given the amount of information we’re all bombarded with every day, you need to make sure your data stands out if it’s to get the attention you need.

While traditional graphs and charts will always have their strengths when it comes to presenting more detailed data, particularly for B2B and B2C audiences and helping to inform decision makers, a powerful graphic can be really effective when you need to reach out to a wider audience. This is because not only does it help grab attention, but it’s simpler for your audience to digest and retain information too.

Presenting your data in the form of an infographic, can also help you to extend the reach of that content on image-based marketing channels, as a visually engaging image is far more likely to be shared by your audience. So, all in all, if you’ve never created an infographic for your survey data before, it’s certainly an option worth exploring.