Infographics have multiplied across the Internet in the past couple of years as web publishers look for creative ways to attract readers. These eye-catching graphics can also serve as a great teaching tool to discuss the fundamentals of effective business communication. Have students review one or more infographics and analyze them according to these criteria:

• Do they have enough audience-centered appeal to be noticed amid all the clutter online?
• Do they provide practical information?
• Do they give facts rather than vague impressions?
• Do they present information in a concise, efficient manner?
• Can readers grasp a unified idea rather than a collection of discrete data points?
• Is visual design used with purpose, in a way that enhances understanding (rather than simply decorating the document)?
• Is an infographic the best choice for communicating this particular information?

The graphic design firm Column Five offers dozens of examples of the infographics it has designed for clients. Here are six in particular that have a business focus appropriate for class discussion:

• How Is the Newspaper Industry Trying to Save Itself?
• The Growth of Distance Learning
• Where Is the Next Generation of Innovators?
• Startup Ecosystem: Predator vs. Prey
• Stormy Weather: Are Americans Financially Prepared for a Rainy Day?
• The World's Leading Innovators

If you use infographics for class discussions, please share your experiences.

Image: Column Five

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Some of us have been around long enough to remember when business communication was a fairly specialized activity. Writers wrote, typesetters set type, art directors designed, graphic artists created, photographers took photos, and production specialists equipped with X-Acto knives combined all these elements on the page.

Then along came desktop publishing software, word processors that were more than glorified typewriters, graphics software, presentation software, and eventually web publishing software. With each advance, more and more design and production responsibility wound up in the writer's lap. In addition to grammar, spelling, and syntax, business communicators now had to worry about typeface choices, leading, color palettes, page composition, image resolution, and a host of other aesthetic and technical concerns. "Business writing" gradually became "business communication" in the broadest sense, and often not to the benefit of communicators or their audiences.

In addition to burdening writers with creative and technical matters in which they often are not trained, this gradual melding of design and production into the writing task steals time and attention away from the writing itself. Presentation software is a great example of this risk: with so many tools (and toys) available in the software, it can be devilishly hard to stay focused on the message one is trying to develop and convey.

Templates and themes can be a powerful way to incorporate design sensibility and to eliminate some of the design decisions that business communicators would otherwise be forced to make. However, choosing and using these guides successfully requires at least a minimum degree of design savvy. Even the safest PowerPoint template or WordPress theme can be misused by communicators who don't appreciate how visual design affects their verbal messages.

Now that so many business professionals need some basic design skills just to survive in their day-to-day work, where are they likely to get this training? Given the many other learning goals you have to incorporate in the business communication course, how much time can you devote to visual design? Do your students get exposure to visual design in other courses (such as presentation slide design in a public speaking course)?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on how you address this challenge. And for ideas on teaching visual communication in your course, be sure to check out Bovee & Thill's Teaching Visual Communication magazine on Scoop.it.

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The project management blog Fear No Project provides a good example of how less can be more when a writer wants to keep the focus on textual content. As this annotated PowerPoint slide shows, the design is about as minimal as one can possibly get, but it supports blogger Bruce McGraw's goal of sharing in-depth project management information with his readers.

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