Infographic Slides That Actually Make People Look Up

Why most infographic slides feel like a tax form

You know that moment when a presenter proudly drops in a complicated chart, pauses for dramatic effect… and the audience just blinks? That’s usually not a data problem. It’s a layout problem.

Most slides die because they try to show everything at once. Every number, every label, every arrow, every footnote. The result is what I like to call “visual soup”: lots of ingredients, no actual flavor.

The twist: infographics on slides don’t have to explain everything. They just have to support what you’re saying out loud. Your voice does the nuance. The slide does the punch.

So instead of thinking, “How do I fit all this data on one slide?” try, “What journey do I want people to go on in 10 seconds?” Once you start there, the layout decisions get a lot easier.

Turning processes into a side‑scrolling story

Ever tried explaining a process and felt like you were narrating the world’s driest instruction manual? “First we do X, then we do Y, then we do Z…” Everyone nods, but you can tell they’re not really seeing it.

That’s where the side‑scrolling process infographic comes in. Think old‑school video game: you move left to right through a world, and every step feels like a new little scene.

How this looks on a slide

Imagine a wide, horizontal path stretching across your slide from left to right. Along that path, you place a series of “stations” or “checkpoints” — each one is a step in your process:

• A simple icon
• A short label (3–5 words)
• One key number or short phrase underneath

Nothing more. If you’re explaining a customer journey, it might go:

Discover → Consider → Try → Buy → Stay

Each step gets its own little visual bubble, but they’re all clearly connected along one path. Your audience’s eyes naturally follow the flow.

How someone might actually use this

Take Maya, who leads product at a startup and has to explain their onboarding funnel to the board. She used to show a dense funnel chart with percentages, arrows, and more annotations than a legal contract. Nobody remembered it.

So she rebuilt it as a side‑scrolling journey:

• On the left: “Sign‑up” with a simple icon and “100%” underneath.
• Next: “Email confirmed” with “62%”.
• Then: “First action” with “41%”.
• Then: “Completed setup” with “23%”.
• On the far right: “Paying customer” with “11%”.

One slide. One path. One visible drop‑off at each step.

While she talked, she highlighted each stage in turn. The board didn’t just see numbers; they saw where the journey was leaking.

Design tricks that make this work

• Commit to one direction. Left‑to‑right or top‑to‑bottom. Don’t zigzag; people shouldn’t need a map.
• Use one hero color. Pick a single accent color for the path and highlight circles. Let everything else stay neutral.
• Animate step by step. Reveal each stage as you talk. It keeps attention locked in the moment instead of skipping ahead.
• Cut the text. If you can’t explain the step in under one line, the step is too complicated or the label is trying to do your job.

When to use this? Any time you’re explaining a sequence: workflows, user journeys, project phases, even something as boring as an approval chain suddenly feels like a story instead of bureaucracy.

When your data is a mess: the “before/after” contrast slide

Some data doesn’t want to behave. It’s tangled, confusing, and honestly kind of ugly. You could bury it in a table. Or you could do what Leo did.

Leo worked in operations and was trying to convince leadership to change a shipping process. He had piles of numbers: delays, costs, error rates. Every time he showed the raw data, people glazed over.

So he tried something else: a split‑screen contrast infographic.

The slide that finally worked

He took one slide and sliced it right down the middle.

• On the left side: “Before” in a muted red tone.

  • A rough, winding path with too many steps.
  • Three simple icons for pain points: clock (delays), dollar sign (extra cost), warning sign (errors).
  • One bold stat under each icon.

• On the right side: “After” in a calm green.

  • A much cleaner, shorter path.
  • The same three icons, but with smaller numbers.

No detailed charts. No micro‑labels. Just a visual gut punch: messy vs. clean.

Suddenly, the conversation shifted. Instead of arguing about whether a 14% reduction was impressive enough, people were saying things like, “Wow, that middle part is a disaster. How fast can we move to the new version?”

Why this layout hits so hard

• Humans love contrast. We’re naturally drawn to comparisons: then vs. now, bad vs. better.
• It forces clarity. You can’t show 20 metrics on each side. You have to choose the three that matter.
• It makes change feel real. People don’t just hear “improvement”; they see the difference.

How to build your own contrast slide

You don’t need fancy tools. PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides — they all work.

• Divide the slide. Straight vertical line or a soft gradient split. Label clearly: “Today / Tomorrow” or “Old Flow / New Flow.”
• Mirror the structure. If you show three stats on the left, show three on the right. Same icons, same positions. Only the numbers and colors change.
• Keep colors simple. One “problem” color (like red or orange), one “solution” color (green or blue), and a neutral background.
• Tell the story out loud. The slide is the punchline, not the script. Use your voice to explain how you got from left to right.

This layout is a lifesaver for policy changes, process redesigns, “we need budget for this” pitches, or any moment where you’re trying to prove that a future state is worth the hassle.

If you want to go nerd‑level on visual perception and why contrast works so well, the National Library of Medicine has plenty of research on how people process visual information.

When you’re drowning in numbers: the single‑story data hero

Sometimes you don’t need a process. You don’t need a comparison. You just have one number that matters more than everything else — and it keeps getting lost in a sea of supporting stats.

This is where the data hero slide comes in. It’s almost aggressively simple: one number, one visual metaphor, one message.

How this looks in real life

A public health team was presenting about vaccination rates. They had charts for age groups, regions, timelines — the usual. Nobody remembered any of it.

Then they tried a different slide.

The entire slide background was a soft grid of 100 tiny people icons. Seventy‑eight of them were colored in blue. Twenty‑two were gray.

In the center, a big headline:

78 out of 100 local residents are vaccinated.

Underneath, one short line:

Our goal: 90 out of 100.

That was it. No axis labels. No legends. No clutter. And people got it instantly.

If you’re curious about how public health organizations use simple visuals like this, the CDC has lots of campaign examples where a single number is the hero.

Why this kind of slide sticks in people’s heads

• It feels like a picture, not a chart. People don’t have to decode it.
• The ratio becomes intuitive. “78 out of 100” is more tangible than “78%.”
• It creates a target. Show where you are and where you want to be, and suddenly people start thinking, “How do we close that gap?”

How to design a data hero slide without overthinking it

• Pick one number. If you try to hero three metrics, you have no hero.
• Use a concrete visual. 100 icons, 10 shapes, a thermometer bar, a stack of boxes — anything that translates the number into something countable.
• Make the number huge. It should be the first thing you see from the back row of a conference room.
• Add one line of context. “This is where we are.” Or, “This is what we’re trying to change.” That’s enough.

You can always follow up with a more detailed chart on the next slide. But let this one be the moment that lands.

So… how do you choose which infographic style to use?

If you’re staring at your slides thinking, “Okay, but which one do I use where?” you’re not alone. A quick way to decide:

• If you’re walking people through steps or phases, go for the side‑scrolling journey.
• If you’re arguing for change, use the before/after contrast.
• If you’re highlighting one big number, build a data hero slide.

And yes, you can mix them in the same deck. In fact, you should. A whole presentation made only of process diagrams feels like being stuck in traffic. Variety keeps people awake.

If you want to sharpen your eye for layout and hierarchy, there are plenty of design resources from universities like MIT OpenCourseWare that dive into visual communication and information design.

Common mistakes that quietly ruin infographic slides

Even the best idea can get flattened by tiny design choices. A few things that make slides feel like work instead of clarity:

Trying to explain everything on the slide

Your slide is not a report. It’s more like a movie poster. It should make sense, but it doesn’t have to contain every detail. Let your voice carry the nuance.

If someone can read your slide silently and get 100% of the message without listening to you, you’re basically optional. That’s not the vibe you want.

Color chaos

If your infographics look like a candy store exploded, you’re doing your brain (and your audience) a disservice. Color should mean something:

• One color for “good” or “target”
• One color for “problem” or “risk”
• One neutral for everything else

The Interaction Design Foundation has solid explanations on visual hierarchy and color use if you want to dig into the theory.

Tiny text and microscopic labels

If people in the back row are squinting, you’ve already lost. Bigger text, fewer words. If a label needs a paragraph, that’s slide‑two material, not slide‑one material.

FAQ: Infographics on slides, without the headache

Do I need special software to design infographic slides?

No. PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides are more than enough. Most of what makes these layouts work is spacing, color, and hierarchy, not fancy tools. If you want extra icons or illustrations, there are plenty of free or low‑cost libraries you can drop in.

How many infographic slides should I use in one presentation?

There’s no magic number, but if every single slide is a dense infographic, your audience will get tired. Mix in simple text slides, one big quote, or a single photo. Think of infographics as your “anchor” moments, not wallpaper.

What if my data is too complex for a simple infographic?

It probably isn’t. The trick is to separate the headline story from the supporting evidence. Use one or two infographic slides to tell the main story, then provide detailed charts in an appendix or a follow‑up document for people who want to dive deeper.

How do I keep my slides accessible?

Use high contrast between text and background, avoid relying on color alone to convey meaning, and keep font sizes large enough for people at the back of the room. If you’re presenting to a broad audience, consider sharing a PDF with alt‑text‑friendly descriptions of key visuals afterward.

Can I reuse the same infographic layout across multiple decks?

Absolutely, and you probably should. Reusing a few consistent layouts (your go‑to process slide, your favorite before/after split, your data hero template) makes your work faster and your brand more recognizable. Just swap in new colors or icons if you need a fresh feel.

If your slides have been feeling more like homework than storytelling, start small. Take one overloaded chart, strip it back, and try one of these layouts instead. You’ll know it’s working when people stop staring at their laptops and start staring at the screen — and not because something broke.