Ever wonder why infographics and data visualization have become so popular over the last year or two? Here are some reasons using the data

Short Attention Spans

Nowadays all our society is “diagnosed” with ADD. This is demonstrated by the fact that most people will decide to leave a website or continue exploring it in the first 2-4 seconds of seeing the page. With very little time to convince people to stick around, infographics and visualizations are a more effective way to literally catch peoples’ eye.

Information Overload

With the worlds information currently doubling every two years, it is no wonder people experience information overload. With smartphones, tablets and the ubiquity of the internet, people are constantly receiving, analyzing, sharing and creating new information. Due to this overload you need to stick out to get people’s attention. Creating a compelling visualization of data or information can make it really stick out from all of the other noise of day-to-day life.

Easy to Understand

As humans, we are very visual creatures. Our ability to quickly interpret visual information is far greater than that of written words. By creating visualizations you can make complex information easier to understand.

Reading Retention

People have horrible retention rates for the information they read. According to the data sited in the infographic on data visualization below, people only remember about 20% of what they read.

More Engaging

With such a large volume of new content published every day, people are inundated. By creating something that is visually compelling, people are more likely to be engaged.