Effect of different infographic designs on learning outcomes, cognitive load and motivation

Along with the developments in web technologies, the expectation from the individuals increased and the easy and rapid process of information became significant. In this process, traditional learning environments that were inadequate to meet the needs of the contemporary individual were replaced by multimedia environments based on the integration of written and visual content. In the process of learning with multimedia, the main objective is to achieve meaningful learning, and the effectiveness of the teaching material is important in this process. Therefore, the infographics that include both verbal and visual elements possess a significant educational power in acquisition of active and retainable knowledge. Thus, the present study aimed to examine the impact of various infographic designs on achievement, cognitive load and motivation. The present study, based on the embedded experimental mixed design, was conducted in two phases with 58 pre-service teachers for four weeks using online and face-to-face interviews. The quantitative and qualitative data obtained in the study demonstrated that there was a significant difference among various infographic designs based on achievement, cognitive load and motivation favoring visual intensive infographics. While visual intensive infographics reduced cognitive load and the required time as a comprehensive teaching material due to its simple and concrete structure, it also increased the motivation levels by offering an interesting and entertaining learning experience. On the other hand, it was determined that the material that included only text, which was considered distracting and long by the participants, was the weakest teaching material based on all scrutinized variables. The present study findings were discussed based on the results of similar studies in the literature and recommendations for future research are presented.