Are you making them work too hard?

We have a number of tools with which we back up the major point. If we really depended on the strength of our data and words alone, we'd be forgetting that rhetoric also involves components of Ethos and Pathos. By employing visual cues, we take advantage of the human brain's limitations and the human eye's tendency to distraction in reinforcing that point. We make the reader's eye see emphasis where we want it, thus focusing the reader's mind on the point we're emphasizing.

Textual Tools

Keep one visible point per page, with at most two to three supporting points. That evident point you're trying to make can be the place the readers' eyes focus on, if you help them out by avoiding

• full justification
• long paragraphs
• embedded lists (use bullets or numbers instead as appropriate)
• run-on sentences, comma splices, etc.
• gratuitous jargon and acronyms
• pretentious language (e.g. long words when short words will do)
• software defaults that hide supporting data (see especially spreadsheets)
• special fonts and characters that don't stand out
• excessive emphasis (i.e. "when everything is emphasized, nothing is emphasized")
• missing transitions and steps (especially in instructions)
• reader events (e.g. calls for action, consequences of inaction) buried in text

...or by employing...

• sentence component reversal - a shorter, more active clause up front: change They still didn't understand, even then. to Even then, they still didn't understand.
• separating clauses - though the sentence is longer, the dashes grab the eye: change Even then, they still didn't understand. to Even then - after the extra training - they still didn't understand.
• tools from news writing, such as:
  • pull-quotes
  • multi-column format (like this page :-))
  • staggered headings (as news articles would be staggered)
  • images above headings, and containing captions

References

Ferguson, E. Engineering and the Mind's Eye. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993. ISBN 0-26256-078-X
Marcus, A. "The Ten Commandments of Color." Plan & Print, 06.1990.
McCloud, S. Understanding Comics. Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press, 1993. ISBN 0-87816-243-7

Information-Carrying Aspects of Pictures

Picture Aspect	Information Delivered
icons	can represent {commercial, scientific, musical} {persons, places, things, or ideas} -- Since we're symbol-oriented, good ones won't be misinterpreted.
labels	direct interpretations of picture content
arrangement	position in time and space motion a whole as a sum of its parts flow of ideas or actions
line, shape, and color	provoke sensory responses unite senses behind thoughts

The type of information conveyed determines how messages embedded in the information get to the audience. Reading text is (to McCloud) a "decoding process," taking time and some knowledge of the subject. Viewing pictures, on the other hand, involves receiving a direct message through direct observation. "One picture is worth a thousand words" is a way of saying that it can take a thousand words to give a descriptive interpretation of a picture, depending on its complexity to the observer.

Reading text is a decoding process...
-- Scott McCloud

No matter what you have to say, you can't always be successful in visual communication because you don't see what they see. If your goal is to get others to see what you see, you may need to change your own view as well as theirs.

Cues from Colors

(per Marcus)

1. Limit the number of colors used.
2. Don't vary blue only: the eyes are less sensitive to levels of blue than of the other primaries.
3. Watch out for illusions of color shift based on image size.
4. Watch out for extreme color combinations.

1. Recognize regular color denotations (e.g. red for stop; green for go, or for nature).
2. Be consistent in representations within any one document.
3. Be consistent in representations throughout families of like documents.
4. Use bright colors for warnings, etc.
5. Don't depend on color alone: consider those with color deficiencies.
6. Enhance your use of black and white (e.g. with shading, etc.).

Color Advantages	Color Disadvantages
calls attention to details allows for discrimination of components enables recognition of depth represents light and shadow simulates passage of time increases comprehension (for many readers)	reproduction expensive and printing time-consuming (compared to black and white) visual fatigue a risk some colors carry negative connotations in some contexts