Improving the effectiveness of public health infographics through design principle application

Infographics have been recognised as an effective and accessible method of information communication, leading to their common use in the dissemination of public health information. However, current design outputs in this field are not frequently produced by information design specialists, resulting in variable design quality. This project looked to address this problem, by investigating the development process for a tool that would allow such users with limited design training to maximise the effectiveness of their infographic outputs. First, a literature review was conducted to define research-based design principles that were applicable to infographics. The value of these principles was then investigated, experimentally comparing user performance with 3 infographic design variations. These design variations applied the design principles to variable degrees; establishing that a high proportion of principles should be applied to maximise user performance. Next, the principles were reduced from 84 to 20, aiming to retain the most salient and maximising accessibility for the non-designer audience. These final principles were developed into motion graphic education resource, aiming to optimise adherence and teach this demographic to successfully apply the principles in their own design. The resource was later tested by conducting a generative design investigation that required 9 healthcare professionals to design a public health infographic, both before and after accessing the resource. Comparative experimental testing on these design outputs revealed that use of the motion graphics resulted in significantly more effective designs, measured by information location efficiency, memorability, and user opinion. This established a successful process for developing effective design education tools, and identified motion graphics as an efficient teaching technique. As well as establishing the needs of the healthcare professional target audience through an iterative user-centred design process. Finally, concluding that use of this resource can be used to maximise the effectiveness of public health infographics, providing potential advantages to the prevention of future disease and protection of the public health.