Announcing the Discovery of the Minfographic

The majority of today’s infographics each contain a large, diverse collection of information.

Let’s have a look at some typical infographics. below is a screenshot take from the Google Images results of the keyword “infographic”, with the dimensions of the full size of each infographic annotated over it.

And then, there’s this fact: Industry reports cite a Comscore study determining that the average time users spend on a web page is 40 seconds… and shrinking.

That being the case, look at the dimensions and complexity of the infographics at left. How many of them could a user do justice to in 40 seconds?

None.

What is obviously needed is for infographics to come in smaller sizes with an amount of information clearly digestible in 40 seconds.

To exploit these conditions of size and information density, a smaller, less dense species infographic has naturally evolved: the minfographic.

A minfographic is typically sized at 400 x 400 pixels and illustrates of one or two data sets only. An example of a minfographic is shown below:

It contains just enough information that can be absorbed in 40 seconds by the average user.

The 400 x 400 pixel size is ideal for it to be uploaded to Facebook with all of it being visible on the Facebook page or profile (this will change to 512 x 512 pixels in the near future when Facebook increases the width of its timeline column to 512 pixels; nevertheless, the number of data sets depicted should stay the same because of the 40-second viewing constraint).

Compatibility with Facebook is important: studies by Buddy Media show that on Facebook, visitors to your profile or page are more likely to click “Like” if there is a large image rather the usual thumbnail (which Facebook shows automatically if your status update contains a link).

A bonus benefit of the minfographic is that since it is less complex than its predecessors, it takes less time to produce and does not need a graphic design superhero for putting it together.

Our prediction is that the old format infographics, which we suspect were sized for print media, will gradually die off, leaving only minfographics to graze the plains of the Internet.

Well, as Charles Darwin probably said, “that’s evolution!”