It's okay, you can admit it-everyone loves a good infographic.
I'd be lying to you if I didn't agree, especially being in the digital marketing field, but did you ever take the time to think about why we all fell in love with these beautiful displays of data points?
Luckily, the team at NeoMam Studios did the legwork for us, compiling this infographic on the science behind why we love infographics. Instead of using the cop-out that "no one reads anymore," NeoMam Studios actually dug into the scientific reasoning behind what makes our brains tick in relation to infographics.
One of the most interesting points is the fact that visual information has increased across all channels, with the Internet being the largest at a 9900% increase since 2007, and even newspapers made the jump, increasing the visuals in their content by 142% between 1985 and 1994.
The data also shows that the whole 'not reading' thing isn't necessarily laziness on our parts but rather science, since the brain is responsible for close to 50% of the visual processing we do. And since it only takes us 1/10 of a second to process a visual, it supports that fact that it's a lot easier to digest data points in an infographic than in paragraph form. Visuals in general also play a huge role in what we choose to pay attention to, as researchers found that images with color increase our willingness to read by up to 80%.
The last piece of data to think about is the fact that people remember 80% of what they see and do, which is a big jump when you consider that only 10% remember what they hear and 20% what they read.
Take a few minutes to digest the rest of the data and statistics that NeoMam Studios put together and try to remember some of them next time you're looking at an infographic.
Infographic via NeoMam Studios
Thumbnail image via Shutterstock