Professionals, educators, students, and consumers are so over-exposed to feedback in today's ever-changing digital world they are becoming more easily bored, resulting in reduced attention spans.
The average person will spend more than five years of their life on social media, according to Mediakix's research findings (2019).
Throughout the annals of ancient history, humans have used drawings to visually communicate a story (2019). With the enormous growth of social media platforms, enabling people to connect and share with others in an instant, infographics are becoming a more powerful and fun way to effectively communicate with each other (Gershon & Page, 2001).
In order for a strategic communicator to remain relevant, he/she must take advantage of ways to work smarter and not harder in order to maximize time and effort to keep target audiences focused and informed in the view of diminishing attention spans (Harper, 2014).
One creative and innovative way to immediately capture viewers attention is using infographics to present content in a condensed and visually alluring manner, which gets straight to the point with key facts, statistics, and brief descriptive sentences and phrases (2019).
Piktochart (n.d.) is a cloud-based graphic design application that makes it easy for strategic communicators to create spectacular infographics for interactive presentations. By using Piktochart’s flexible design themes end users can easily embed graphs, interactive maps, charts, videos and hyperlinks into their infographic (Wiesenfeld, 2019).
One of the key benefits offered as a part of the free and upgradeable subscription-based Piktochart plan is it enables strategic communicators to easily simplify and compress data through visual storytelling via infographics allowing viewers to spot important key points quickly.
By using striking graphics and design layout, Piktochart helps public relations and marketing strategist create more memorable presentations by maximizing white space by using visuals over text to communicate with their key audiences, thereby minimizing the likelihood of information overload. Having years of experience creating with applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Pagemaker/In Design, Harvard Graphics (n.d.), and a multitude of presentation software since 1993, I must admit Piktochart is one of the most versatile and user-friendly design software in the marketplace for those who are just beginning to presentation specialists.
With this in mind, based on my initial hands-on experimentation with Piktochart and comprehensive research (Beck, 2019) would recommend consumers take advantage of the free version of Piktochart’s software unless you have a need to create and export unlimited high-resolution images or pdf files using their pro, subscription-based program.
On the negative side, although one can access Piktochart through their smartphone, due to the limited access to features and the small screen from which to operate, it is nearly impossible to produce quality infographics.
Needless to say, designing infographics using a computer would be highly recommended because you will have full access to the software's power and it is simpler to use a larger screen to create infographics (2019).
Chiefly, as a public relations and marketing expert, I firmly believe in the adage, a picture is worth a thousand words, which clearly illustrates the power of photographs and illustrations to convey messages, thoughts, or views we want to express to others. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the above meaning in our world today is as relevant as it was eons ago.
In the final analysis, Piktochart will make the data in your presentation come to life through visual storytelling by using interesting photographs, illustrations, charts, and graphs, which will enable you to immediately connect with your key audiences while continuing to promote your brand identity.
I would highly recommend signing up for Piktochart today.
Disclaimer: This blog receives no payment or other compensation for reviews of products or services.
References
A history of storytelling through pictures. (2019, July 30). Retrieved from https://blog.britishmuseum.org/a-history-of-storytelling-through-pictures/.
Beck, B. (2019, March 26). Piktochart vs. Canva vs. Visme: We Grade 3 Visual Storytelling Tools. Retrieved from https://www.clearvoice.com/blog/piktochart-vs-canva-vs-visme-put-3-visual-storytelling-tools-test/.
Computer vs. Smartphone. (2019, August 2). Retrieved from https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001398.htm.
Create Infographics, Presentations & Flyers. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://piktochart.com/.
Gershon, N., & Page, W. (2001). What Storytelling Can Do for INFORMATION VISUALIZATION. Communications of the ACM, 44(8), 31–37. https://doi-org.oclc.fullsail.edu/10.1145/381641.381653
HARPER, S. C. (2014). Concentration is crucial. (Cover story). Industrial Engineer: IE, 46(8), 26–31. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.oclc.fullsail.edu:81/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=97050010&site=ehost-live
How Much Time Do We Spend On Social Media? [Infographic]. (2019, July 28). Retrieved from https://mediakix.com/blog/how-much-time-is-spent-on-social-media-lifetime//.
The power of infographics. (2019, January 31). Retrieved from https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2018/08/power-infographics.
Wiesenfeld, J. (2019, June 17). How to Create an Infographic in 5 Minutes. Retrieved from https://piktochart.com/blog/how-to-create-an-infographic-and-other-visual-projects-in-5-minutes/.
What is Harvard Graphics? - Definition from Techopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/19738/harvard-graphics.