Advanced PowerPoint Infographics

“I need this graphic created in PowerPoint so we can edit it later.” I used to cringe when my clients would request that I use PowerPoint to create graphics, because—as I would assert—it is not a graphics package. PowerPoint is presentation software. Graphic designers like me use software like Illustrator and Photoshop to create professional infographics. However, I’ve found that many clients don’t want to invest in graphics software for their team. They don’t want to learn these tools when they need to make only small changes to graphics. And it doesn’t make sense for my clients to keep me available 24/7 for small (but inevitable) graphics updates. Because PowerPoint comes packaged with Word, Excel, and other Microsoft apps on corporate computers, my clients had immediate access to and a basic understanding of the software. So, even if I didn’t like it, I had to admit their request made a lot of sense.  Consequently, it made sense for me to learn how to design graphics in PowerPoint, because my clients were paying me to design their graphics for their needs. Digging my heels in the Adobe dirt and refusing to budge my designer beliefs wouldn’t help anyone, especially them. Plus, I could lose their business.   So I took on the challenge to meet my clients where they were by delivering their graphics in PowerPoint. This shift more than tested my design skills. Using PowerPoint to create graphics evolved my entire design process. When I began, I would open PowerPoint and start designing—without a concrete plan. That technique resulted in many iterations and a lot of frustration for my clients and me. I often found myself in an I’ll-know-it-when-I-see-it situation. This was not ideal; redesigning graphics multiple times costs money and time for my clients, pushing their

budgets and deadlines. At first, I blamed PowerPoint. It wasn’t an actual graphics package, so that’s why I was always running through so many iterations. But I soon realized that PowerPoint wasn’t the main problem. My design process was the problem! That aha moment led me to overhaul my entire approach to creating graphics to get graphics right the first time. I divided the process into three phases:

• Discover
• Conceptualize
• Render

In the first two phases, I don’t use any graphic software. I start my design process by researching the message and then sketching graphic ideas—either on paper or on a tablet. Rendering the graphic doesn’t happen until Phase 3. I was surprised to find that PowerPoint contains many tools that are similar to those found in programs like Illustrator. My final infographics, rendered directly in PowerPoint, were professional, compelling, and comparable to those I’d created using Adobe’s tools.  When you follow my step-by-step design process, you will learn to easily turn words, ideas, and data into professional PowerPoint infographics that improve understanding, recollection, and adoption. Note: All infographics in this article were created within PowerPoint using built-in features and two add-ins, my own Build-a-Graphic and BrightSlide, by BrightCarbon.)

Phase 1: Discover

In the Discover phase, I delineate five things before I create the graphic: requirements, objective, audience, message, and the answers to the learner’s (target audience’s) questions. 

Requirements

The first step is to determine what the client will need in the final graphics and why. Some key aspects of a project include: 

• Preferred font and font size
• Dimensions
• If it will be animated 
• Style (modern, flat, skeuomorphic, retro, etc.)
• Colors
• Client brand standards
• Whether it will be printed, projected, screen shared, or all three 

I make better graphic choices and provide better guidance to my clients when I know these requirements up front.  On one project, a client asked me to make an infographic that explains the features of a new microchip facility. Due to the complexity and volume of content, I recommended that we animate the infographic to reveal each level while we explained it in the presentation.  Knowing that this graphic would be presented in front of an audience let me  suggest this animated alternative. The resulting infographic did not overwhelm the audience and was a success.

Objective

I next discover the objective: what is supposed to happen after the target audience has reviewed the content in the infographic. For example, you may want your boss to quickly see that your department is on budget by showing them a line graphic of your current spending. Or you may want your client to buy into your solution by showing them a process diagram that demonstrates how it meets their needs.  Who decides the objective varies from project to project. Sometimes it’s my client, sometimes it’s me, and other times it is a collaborative effort.  Here’s an example from my own book, A Trainer’s Guide to PowerPoint: Best Practices for Master Presenters. My objective: I wanted readers to have an overview of what they would learn so they could manage their expectations. I designed a simple yet effective infographic to meet this objective (Figure 1). Agreeing to an established objective before you design the graphic helps avoid the inefficient I’ll-know-it-when-I-see-it approach to design. It also helps you measure a graphic’s success against this agreed upon goal.

Audience

Who is my target audience? What is their proficiency level with my content? The more I know, the better my choices. We are not making the graphic for us; we are making it for them.  You might find these very different types of people in your audience—and they respond very differently to information: Strategic thinkers want the big picture first. They are focused on holistic, overarching goals and objectives. They need to know why your content matters to them as soon as possible, or else they will tune out. Tactical thinkers are geeks. They want the details. They do the work and need to know if this information will help them in real-world situations. The unengaged, or ambivalent learners, do the bare minimum to absorb your content. They don’t want to do more than they must. Your presentation might be a work requirement for them, or they otherwise don’t feel as if they need to learn it.  I’ve found almost every learner fits into one (or more) of these three archetypes. The degree to which you know the composition of your audience will make or break the effectiveness of your presentation.

Message

Your message can be your infographic’s title, headline, takeaway, action caption, or bumper sticker. At its core, a message concisely summarizes your graphic and should include two parts: You need a motivator to give your learner a reason to care. If your audience isn’t engaged, then your infographic will fail in its objective. The means explains how your learner will get what the motivator promises. Either can be implied based on context, but I recommend being explicit. Figure 2 shows an effective message with a motivator and a means. 

You can have up to three motivators to address your strategic thinkers, tactical thinkers, and the unengaged. All three learner archetypes want us to be clear, to be concise, and to plainly connect the dots between their motivators (why they should care) and the means (how will they get the motivator). Otherwise, we will lose them. Your constant objective—your North Star—is to know what you want to say before you say it with pictures and words. Using your message, you can objectively test if your infographic will be successful. Objectively, Figure 3 fails to communicate its intended message—“increase market saturation by combining iSystem’s software and eMark’s marketing tools”—primarily because the graphic is meaningless without any of the words in the message.  Tip: The true test of whether your graphic works is to hide your message, then ask someone who might fall within your target audience what your graphic communicates to them. If their response is different from your message, the infographic (or the message) needs to evolve.

Answers

An infographic is a conversation between the author(s) and the learner(s) in your audience. When you create a message with a motivator and means, a learner will naturally want two questions answered:  The what: What is the means? The how: How will it get me the motivator(s)? Our job is to answer those questions quickly and efficiently. Let’s return to Figure 2, where our message states, “Learner’s needs are always met via our evolving seven-step L&D process.” Our graphic will need to communicate to learners what our seven-step process is and how it ensures their needs are always met. We can further use these details on the path to determining the best type of graphic to communicate our points.

Phase 2: Conceptualize

Once you’ve completed the Discovery phase, you’re ready to conceptualize. The goal here is to make your content easier to understand at a glance.  In this phase, you will visualize how to illustrate your infographic and determine the graphic type that best communicates your message: organization chart, process diagram, pyramid graphic, bar chart, road graphic, or something completely different. Infographics streamline communication. They showcase our core messaging by visually answering the what and the how for our audience.  Infographics contain a limited amount of text and instead rely on graphic elements to help convey the key ideas. Therefore, the first step in this phase is to chunk your text and remove unnecessary content that could be spoken, shared in the narrative, or delivered in another form.  Figure 4 shows a first draft of an L&D Process slide that answers the what and the how of the motivator in the previous figure. This text-only numbered list would likely overwhelm a graphic (and the audience), so I chunked and distilled the text into the important keywords or key phrases of the L&D process until it looked like Figure 5. Now, the text reads from left to right, telling a linear story in sequence. 

You can realign your text and add arrows and lines to reinforce the relationship between the blocks of text as shown in Figure 6. Next, there are three methodologies to visualize your content: Literal Method: When you are describing attributes, literally show it. The example in Figure 7 shows the exercise being described. Quantitative Method: When you are sharing an amount, a value, and/or a time, use a quantitative graphic (e.g., bar chart, pie chart, timeline). Figure 8 shares complex quantitative information in a way that is easy to digest. Substitution Method: When your content is abstract or too complex for your learner(s), use a visual metaphor, a simile, or an analogy. In Figure 9, I used a bridge metaphor to communicate transition.  You can apply more than one methodology in a graphic. For example, you might use the literal method to make icons for each step in your bridge metaphor to strengthen your messaging.  Tip: My free Build-a-Graphic Cheat Sheet (Figure 10) can also help you choose the best graphic type for your concepts.  At this point in the process, I recommend quickly (and poorly) sketching your concept. The rougher, the better—for three reasons. A rough sketch is faster than opening software and mocking up a design.  When you get feedback on your draft sketch (which you can verbally explain), you avoid aesthetic biases clouding your stakeholder’s judgment. If your concept were fully designed, people may unjustly trash a great concept based on subjective bias simply because they can’t see beyond easily changed design choices (i.e., colors, fonts, style).  You don’t have to be a PowerPoint expert or Photoshop pro to do a rough drawing. Figure 11, is my simple conceptual sketch for the final rendered bridge graphic shown in Figure 9. At this point, you need to share your draft design and message with anyone who has veto power—boss, clients, co-workers, presenters. Walk them through both the design and the message.  If anyone spots an issue with your design, now is the time to identify it before spending hours or days rendering the final graphic. 

Phase 3: Render

Once your message and concept are approved, it’s time to render your graphic. For this article, I am using PowerPoint. Note: The principles I am sharing work for all graphics software. First, you and your client will want to agree to a style—colors, fonts, and the other qualities that create a look and feel. Most likely, you will use your organization’s brand standards.  If you don’t have or are not constrained by brand standards, Figure 12 offers a quick reference guide to choosing a style for your target audience.  

Over a decade ago, companies considered photorealism, or skeuomorphic design, as the high-end choice for their marketing materials and websites. This design style resonates with audiences over 50 years old because this technique was used in professional design during their early work years.  Around 2014, smartphones introduced a simpler aesthetic due to screen size and resolution constraints (simplified design). Gen Z, Millennials, and younger Gen X audiences may consider this style to look more professional, modern, or innovative compared with skeuomorphism.  Then in 2016, Google released Material Design, an open-source design system that blends both skeuomorphic and simplified styles. Material Design gives you the flexibility to create simple designs that add the right amount of aesthetic embellishment, 3D, or photorealism as needed to communicate your concept. Material Design style appeals to the widest audience because it is a hybrid of the two extreme design styles. Use the scale in Figure 12 to help select the best style for your audience. Color trends change over time. If you aren’t constrained by brand colors, you can do a web search for the latest designs, or try a tool like Adobe Color to find the best combination that accentuates your graphic and its message. Also, consider that color has cultural and subject-specific meanings. For example, green symbolizes love and life in Japan, while green symbolizes spring, start/go, and money in the United States. Because you’ve discovered your audience during Phase 1, you now have the information you need to choose the correct color scheme. Check out Nicte Cuevas’s article on color and culture in Issue 7 for more on this topic. Choose legible fonts from the four basic font categories (Figure 13). As with choosing a color palette, knowing your audience and understanding your message will help you choose the best font for your needs. For example, you don’t want to use a whimsical font for a heading of a serious infographic. Doing so will confuse your message and your audience.  You have two choices when rendering your graphics: build it (make it) yourself, or buy it (acquire it/hire others to do it).  I do both. I buy whatever graphics can save me time, then build what I can’t find. Building graphics takes time, and my time equals money. Another consideration is my proficiency in the program. I am not an Adobe After Effects expert, so I often buy videos to use in my presentations instead of spending hours or days creating a video from scratch. 

Build it

Even though PowerPoint is optimized to make and deliver presentations, you can use it to render most designs. Its built-in features include a library of photos and other raster images, icons, cutout people, stickers (embellishments), videos, illustrations, and cartoon people (Figure 14). 

You can create most graphics using the Merge Shapes function and Edit Points tools—very similar to features found in Illustrator!  Figures 15–17 provide step-by-step instructions for using PowerPoint to make funnel, hexagon, and pyramid infographics. Avoid using PowerPoint’s SmartArt for final renders due to its relative low-quality aesthetics and overuse. Using this feature gives your audience the impression (true or not) that you didn’t put much effort to making your infographic and, by association, the content.

Buy it

If you don’t have the time, desire, or proficiency to build your infographics, there are tools that do the heavy lifting for you. The Noun Project and my Build-a-Graphic are both add-ins that work within PowerPoint. The Noun Project (Figure 18; $2.99 per icon or $40/year per user for unlimited access) is a massive library of icons and symbols, and now photos, too. If your workflow is icon-heavy and you want a greater selection than PowerPoint offers, there is no better resource. Because The Noun Project is a collection of different artists’ work, the styles vary. Be sure to keep your icon styles consistent. Choose icons that are filled or unfilled, or ones with similar line weights to keep quality high. 

Build-a-Graphic (Figure 19; $199/year per user) is a growing library of more than 10,000 editable (vector) infographics and elements. I helped develop this tool because I couldn’t find what I needed elsewhere. It helps you turn words and ideas into professional infographics. See Nolan Haims’ review in Issue 21 for more information. BrightSlide (Figure 20; Free) is a free PowerPoint add-in that allows me to make edits and animate faster than ever. I recommend this tool if you want to streamline development and increase your productivity.  Canva.com, Infogram.com, Pexels.com, Piktochart.com, Pixabay.com, and PresentationLoad.com are other graphic resources I use to augment my own designs.  Use whichever tools you prefer. No one size will fit all. 

Putting It All Together

Aesthetics matter a lot, but pretty pictures without substance won’t get the job done. Attractive infographics with no objective, message, or story will fail.  That is why my phased approach to designing advanced infographics gives you the foundation—through discovery and conceptualization—to create graphics tailored to your audience.   By using visuals that present clear, compelling content in a professional, engaging way—and do so at a glance— you will achieve not only your goals but the goals of your learners and your organization.  It’s a win/win for everyone.