Common infographic mistakes and how to fix them

Most infographic problems fall into four groups: no clear message, data that doesn't support the point, design that gets in the way of reading, and publishing details that break the piece once it's shared. Here are the mistakes we see most often, with a fix for each.

Message mistakes

1. No single takeaway

A page of twelve unrelated facts about coffee, each with an icon, gives readers nothing to hold on to, and they remember none of it.

Fix: Write the message in one sentence before you design. Keep only the facts that support it. Our planning guide walks through this.

2. A headline that names the topic

"Smartphone Usage Statistics" tells readers what the piece is about, not what it found.

Fix: Make the headline the finding: "Nine in ten American adults now own a smartphone." Keep it short enough to read at a glance.

3. Too much in one piece

Long infographics that try to cover a whole subject end up as posters nobody finishes.

Fix: Split it. Three focused pieces travel further than one sprawling one, and each can be sized properly for where it will appear.

Data mistakes

4. Bar charts that don't start at zero

When a bar axis starts at 50, a bar for 60 looks twice as long as a bar for 55. The chart overstates the difference.

Fix: Start bar axes at zero. If the differences become hard to see, the differences are small, and that is the honest picture. If you need to show small changes, use a line chart or show the change itself.

5. Comparing amounts that aren't comparable

Dollar amounts from 1970 next to dollar amounts from 2024. Totals for countries of very different populations. Survey results with different definitions.

Fix: Adjust for inflation when comparing money over time and say which index you used. Use per-person rates for places of different size. Use one source or matching definitions. Our minimum wage example shows how to label nominal values clearly when you don't adjust.

6. Missing or vague sources

"Source: Internet" or "Source: Statista" with no dataset, or no source at all.

Fix: Name the organization, the dataset or report, and the year, on the graphic itself. See the data sources guide.

7. False precision

"43.27 percent of users" when the survey's margin of error is three points.

Fix: Round to what the data supports, usually whole percentages for surveys. Keep the precise figures in your working file.

Design mistakes

8. 3D and perspective effects

3D pies and bars distort the values: the slice nearest the viewer looks bigger, and the depth of a bar hides where its top is.

Fix: Use flat charts. If you want visual interest, get it from the layout, the type and one strong color.

9. Pictograms scaled by area

A small icon of a house next to a bigger one, where the bigger one is twice as tall and twice as wide. It represents double the value but has four times the area.

Fix: Repeat icons (a row of ten houses versus a row of twenty), or scale only one dimension. Better still, use a bar.

10. Color with no meaning

Every bar a different color, a rainbow palette for low-to-high values, or the same color meaning different things in different sections.

Fix: Use one neutral color for most things and one accent for what matters. Use a single-hue light-to-dark scale for ordered values. Keep color meanings fixed across the piece. The color and type guide has more.

11. Text too small or too pale

Labels that are readable on the designer's large monitor become unreadable on a phone. Light gray type on white fails contrast checks.

Fix: Test at the size people will see it. Check every text color for at least 4.5:1 contrast with its background. The contrast cheat sheet shows what passes.

12. Decoration competing with data

Background textures, drop shadows, swooshes, stock illustrations and icons beside every number. Each one asks for attention that the data needed.

Fix: Remove one decorative element at a time and see if anything is lost. Usually nothing is.

Publishing mistakes

13. Cropped by the platform

A tall infographic posted to a feed that shows only a square in the middle. The headline and source line disappear.

Fix: Export separate versions at the aspect ratios each platform prefers, and keep important content away from the edges. The sizes guide lists the common shapes.

14. An image with no text around it

A large image file with no alt text and no HTML content around it is invisible to screen readers and gives search engines little to work with.

Fix: Write alt text that states the finding, and publish the headline, key figures and sources as real text on the page. See the accessibility guide.

Fixing them in the right order

When a draft has several of these problems, fix them from the top of this list down. A clearer message often removes whole sections, along with their color, labeling and sizing problems. Data fixes come next, because a chart built on mismatched numbers has to be redrawn anyway. Design and publishing fixes are the last pass. Working in that order means you don't spend an afternoon polishing a chart that later gets cut.

A last check

Before you publish, hand the piece to someone who hasn't seen it, give them ten seconds, and ask what it says. Then ask where the numbers come from. If they can answer both, most of the mistakes above have been avoided. If they can't, the list above usually tells you why.

Questions