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ABSTRACT
Clients and employers are asking for infographics and visually 

appealing slides because they see infographics everywhere, 

and slides at conferences and meetings are looking differ-

ent than in years past. They want graphical elements, short 

phrases, connections between ideas to be made clear, and to 

get to the point right away. Putting together these new deliv-

erables means incorporating a few key elements and thinking 

differently about how you present data. The elements needed 

are visual (color coding, graphics, and icons), content (time-

frames and timelines, statistics, and references), and knowledge 

(facts and deductions). Infographics come in different sizes: 

they can be an image of any size or shape, 1 or 2-page 8.5 by 11 

sizes, or rolling infographics that are a standard screen width 

but any length (meant to be scrolled on a website). When creat-

ing visually appealing slides, use templates, icons, colors, and 

images to bring visual interest; put words into boxes, SmartArt, 

circles, shapes, charts, and graphics; and pare down the 

words and showcase certain words (often numbers or shorter 

phrases) with color, size, or space. Create infographics and 

visually appealing slides using sites or templates available from 

these sites and from PowerPoint Office 365 to make this pro-

cess easier. Getting comfortable with these new visual formats 

might take some time, research, and exposure, but it can be a 

worthwhile addition to your skillset.

Whether your clients or employers call them infographics, 

ask for data visualization, or just complain that there are too 

many words or bullets, you have to figure out how to provide 

your data in a more visually appealing manner to keep up 

with changing ways of communicating. Sometimes client or 

employer complaints reflect a feeling that something is not 

right, but they do not know how to fix it. This may come out in 

many ways: how can we make this look nicer? would this look 

better in a chart? could we have an image here? 

 Even if they are not asking for it yet, it is coming.

Infographics are everywhere, slides at conferences have a  

different look than in years past, and journals are now asking 

for graphical abstracts. People do not have the patience or 

attention span to read long 

paragraphs. They want short 

phrases on slides, connec-

tions between ideas to be 

made clear, and to get to the 

point right away.

 The concepts behind 

infographics and visually 

appealing slides include ele-

ments of data visualization.

 Charts and graphs are used to help people quickly see  

patterns in data, but sometimes photographs are used to make 

a slide catch the reader’s eye or to show the point of the con-

tent. This article will discuss the elements of infographics and 

visually appealing slides, how to create them using sites and 

the tools and templates in PowerPoint, and where to look for  

inspiration when trying to make data and content more  

visually appealing.

 This article’s goal is to help those who do not have access 

to a graphic artist to design images, infographics, and more 

visually appealing slides. Those with access to a graphic artist 

should count themselves lucky, as many teams do not have 

these resources. 

WHAT IS AN INFOGRAPHIC?
There are many different types of infographics, but they tend 

to have some common characteristics. 

 Infographics can be broken down into 3 easily digestible 

ideas as presented in the Figure: visual, content, and knowledge.2 

The visual come up again and again: color coding, graphics, 

and reference icons. Essential to any infographic is the content, 

which includes time frames and timelines, statistics, and refer-

ences. And lastly are the facts and deductions that make up the 

Kelly Schrank, MA, ELS / Freelance Medical Editor, Bookworm Editing Services, Canastota, NY

Infographics and Visually Appealing Slides

Data visualization is the 
graphical representation of 
information and data. By 
using visual elements like 
charts, graphs, and maps, 
data visualization tools 
provide an accessible way to 
see and understand trends, 
outliers, and patterns in data.1

F
E

A
T

U
R

E



AMWA Journal / V36 N3 / 2021 / amwa.org    107

• The first size is the smallest, and it can be any size or shape. 

Infographic images are often used in slides or a document 

to provide visual interest or to make connections between 

ideas or data.

• The second size is a normal 8.5 by 11 document, either 1 

page or 2 page. These 1 or 2-page infographics are used for 

handouts or in place of a document on a website.

• The last size is a rolling infographic, which can also be any 

size. Rolling infographics often appear as long images on a 

website, where they can be scrolled through to get to the dif-

ferent sections. They can cover a lot of information, but they 

must be accessed via a website and must be shared with a 

link to the site. 

 The Resources list has links to examples of infographics in 

each of these sizes. 

WHAT IS A VISUALLY APPEALING SLIDE?
A visually appealing slide covers only one idea, and it does so 

in an interesting way. 

 According to Slide:ology,3 “Effective slide design hinges on 

mastery of 3 things: arrangement, visual elements, and move-

ment.” Each of these 3 things has many elements within it. 

 Under Arrangement, Duarte lists contrast, flow, hierarchy, 

unity, proximity, and white space. She feels you must use each 

of these to tell the audience what has priority; the worst thing 

you can do is “put everything on one slide and assign them 

equal value.” 

 Under Visual Elements, she lists background, color, text, 

and images. She believes that each of these “determines how 

your slide elements will look” and that you must be consistent 

in their use. 

 Under Movement, she lists timing, pace, distance, direction, 

and eye flow, but much of this discussion centered around  

animation, and it was discouraged unless you really know what 

you are doing.

 The goal is to keep the reader’s interest by having a vari-

ety of thematically associated and relevant slides tell a story 

in a cohesive and interesting way. As a medical communica-

tor, you may not always have the luxury of telling a really excit-

ing story—maybe it is data about a study—but you can at least 

make the slides change a bit from each other without being so 

different they seem thrown together. 

 One of the most difficult parts of this is breaking away from 

our reliance on paragraphs, or paragraphs masquerading as 

bulleted lists, and learning to break data into more manage-

able/digestible chunks. If an idea needs a paragraph to be 

explained, it should be spoken, and it can be put into the notes 

to act as a script. In some cases, perhaps an important quote, 

a paragraph is fine, but again, it should NOT be the default. 

Similarly, slides with the standard bulleted lists should not be 

the default for a whole deck; use bulleted lists or numbered 

steps when they fit the purpose of a particular slide and try to 

expand how you present data on other slides. 

 Many times, breaking data into more digestible chunks 

requires more slides so that the speaker or the slide is only dis-

cussing one idea on each slide. If your deck is already too long, 

maybe you are just trying to do too much in one deck.

HOW DO YOU CREATE INFOGRAPHICS AND 
VISUALLY APPEALING SLIDES?
Sites
There are many sites that allow you to create infographics and 

visually appealing slides, as shown in the Table. All you have to 

do is pick a design and type information into it. For some  

projects, the site’s design may fit your needs, with good colors, 

shapes, fonts, and the right spaces for the content you need  

to add.

 All of the sites listed have infographic designs. Canva, 

Piktochart, and Visme also provide a variety of other graphic 

designs: slide sets, infographics, images, posts, and videos. 

Infogram and Venngage are more focused on the rolling info-

graphic and are the most locked down with the free version of 

their services. Neither of these sites allows you to export the 

infographics you create on their site with the free version, and 

all you have is the version on their website with their logo or 

watermark when using the free version. Because most of your 

clients and employers will not want their infographics to be 

Figure. Elements of infographics.2 

knowledge. In theory, you should be comfortable with the con-

tent and knowledge part of this perspective. You are probably 

just struggling with putting them into a new visual format, and 

this article will discuss this in more detail. 

Infographics come in different sizes based on their use: 



108    AMWA Journal / V36 N3 / 2021 / amwa.org        

branded/watermarked or published to the public site of one  

of these companies, you would have to upgrade to a paid ver-

sion to be able to use it with clients and employers. Prices in 

the table reflect individual accounts (at time of publication), 

but upgrading to a corporate account would have the added 

benefit of sharing what you create with your team to allow  

collaboration. 

Templates and Tools in PowerPoint
Templates

For those with the Office 365 version of PowerPoint and 

some skills (or those who are willing to learn), you can use 

PowerPoint and some of the infographic templates available to 

create different types of infographics. 

 Current versions of PowerPoint for PC and Mac have 

native templates for infographics. Some of these available 

files will be whole slide decks with infographic-like elements, 

others have an infographic element like a timeline or a chart, 

others have images (called icons in this article), and many are 

the type of 1-page or 2-page infographics discussed earlier 

(some are called posters and others are just named with the 

topic). Some have text that coincides with the topic; others 

have placeholder text (lorem ipsem). The added benefit of 

using PowerPoint is the ability to share files with coworkers 

and collaborate in a tool ubiquitous in modern offices. 

 You can also download PowerPoint infographic templates 

from different companies; here’s a list of free infographic 

templates: https://graphicmama.com/blog/infographic-

powerpoint-templates. Whether using the infographic 

templates provided within PowerPoint or from an outside 

provider, you can change colors, fonts, images, sizes, or 

anything else like any other PowerPoint file. 

Tools

PowerPoint in Office 365 has many more options than older 

versions: the new Design Ideas function, more options in 

Smart Art, many more icons, and many more stock images. 

If you have an older version of PowerPoint, you will still have 

templates and SmartArt, but you may not have the same icons, 

any stock images, or the Design Ideas function. 

 If the stock images in PowerPoint are limited in your 

version or just do not have what you need, you can also find 

free stock images from websites such as Noun Project (https://

thenounproject.com/), Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/), 

Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/), and Unsplash (https://

unsplash.com/). Remember to always use them according 

to the site’s terms and conditions and to give attribution 

whenever possible.

WHERE DO YOU GET INSPIRATION?
Where can you get design ideas, see what is in fashion (yes, 

it is constantly evolving), and see what good design looks 

like? Check out sites like Canva (https://www.canva.com/), 

Piktochart (https://piktochart.com/), and Visme (https://

www.visme.co/), which all offer infographic and slide deck 

templates. Explore the PowerPoint options, especially the 

Design Ideas function, templates, and other tools available. 

Check out organizations like the Presentation Guild, which 

offers a certification for Presentation Specialists, and the 

Presentation Summit, which offers sessions and workshops 

from industry experts in presentation design. 

 Infographics and visually appealing slides are not going 

away anytime soon, so it is good to get familiar with the ele-

ments of infographics and how you use them. When creating 

or updating slides, incorporating elements of infographics  

will make you stand out.

Table. Sites for Creating Infographics and Visually Appealing Slides

Free Option

Site Types of Materials
Able to 
Export?

Public 
Publication?

Watermark/ 
Branding?

Paid Option 
(Individual)

Canva Infographics, slides Yes No No ~$10/mo

Infogram Infographics No Yes Yes ~$19/mo

Piktochart Infographics, slides Yes Yes Yes ~$29/mo

Venngage Infographics No Yes Yes ~$49/mo

Visme Infographics, slides Yes Yes Yes ~$39/mo



AMWA Journal / V36 N3 / 2021 / amwa.org    109

Author declaration and disclosures: The author notes no commer-
cial associations that may pose a conflict of interest in relation to 
this article.

Author contact: kelly@headbookworm.com

References
1. Understanding data visualization techniques. Great Learning 

website. Published 2020. Accessed February 28, 2021. https://www.

mygreatlearning.com/blog/understanding-data-visualization-

techniques/

2. Roy S. The anatomy of an infographic: 5 steps to create a powerful 

visual. SpyreStudios website. Published 2009. Accessed February 28, 

2021. https://spyrestudios.com/the-anatomy-of-an-infographic-5-

steps-to-create-a-powerful-visual/

3. Duarte N. Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great 

Presentations. O’Reilly Media; 2008.

RESOURCES

• For information on how to create infographics and visually 
appealing slides using PowerPoint, see the 
How-to Handout .

• For an example of a handout infographic that discusses the 
common elements in infographics and visually appealing 
slides, see the Handout Infographic.

• For an example of a rolling infographic that provides 
resources, such as sites and stock images, see the Rolling 
Infographic. 

• For an example of an image infographic that shows the 
three elements of infographics, see the Image Infographic.

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mailto:kelly@headbookworm.com
https://www.mygreatlearning.com/blog/understanding-data-visualization-techniques/
https://spyrestudios.com/the-anatomy-of-an-infographic-5-steps-to-create-a-powerful-visual/
https://spyrestudios.com/the-anatomy-of-an-infographic-5-steps-to-create-a-powerful-visual/
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https://www.amwa.org/resource/resmgr/resource_library/visual_comm/Handout_Infographics_Visuall.pdf
https://www.amwa.org/resource/resmgr/resource_library/visual_comm/Infographic_Common_Elements.pdf
https://www.amwa.org/resource/resmgr/resource_library/visual_comm/Rolling_Infographic_Example.png
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