Upcoming Webinar on 30 June: Building Visual Explanations: Practical Advice for Writers

Why Are Visual Explanations Useful?

Guest post by Don Moyer

There’s a popular urban myth that people only use ten percent of their true mental capacity. That’s ridiculous. Even the smartest people are using their full mental powers every day and often that’s not enough. Coping with the speed and complexity of life takes everything we’ve got, and we still forget where we put our keys.

To get by in a complex world, we need to know what’s going on. Well-written explanations are a big help. By introducing a parade of ideas in a precise order, a good writer can build our understanding of all kinds of complex relationships. We can read to understand anything, from how our new software works to how our society works. 

But some messages are too complex or too important to trust to words alone. That’s when visual explanations can help. Pictures, diagrams, maps, and charts can help a reader grasp important ideas by making relationships vivid. 

Presenting information visually builds on the natural ability that people have to recognize patterns and to make sense from similarities and differences. A good visual explanation depicts the most important parts of a story and makes the relationships tangible. 

Here are a half dozen special strengths of visual explanations.

1. MAKE YOU LOOK

People are naturally attracted to images. We like to look at pictures. Readers who may be put off by a gray wall of text aren’t intimidated by a visual explanation. 

2. TELL AND SHOW

Images and text can reinforce each other. Reading the message in text AND seeing the same story as an image is stronger than either alone. For messages that are vital, combining show and tell can significantly increase how many people you reach. 

3. FORCE SIMPLICITY

Because visual explanations must fit on pages or display screens, there’s pressure to leave out unnecessary details—to simplify. Being forced to make smart decisions about what’s vital and what’s trivial always benefits a communication project. 

4. GIVE THE BIG PICTURE

Images naturally offer an overview. Unlike text that unfolds a story in a linear way, images depict relationships in multiple dimensions all at once. A good visual explanation can allow the reader to take in the whole view at a glance before getting into the details.

5. MAKE IT REAL

Human beings are hardwired to prefer the concrete to the abstract. In a visual explanation, every idea, even the most abstract, must be translated into recognizable, tangible elements. As a bonus, making elements of the story vivid means that they stay put while the reader scrutinizes them. This means that images can offer continuity during the time it takes to unfold a complex story.

6. INVOLVE THE READER

Decoding a visual explanation involves the reader in the process of building meaning. That engagement is priceless. Typically, the effort is small, no harder than the work required to get a joke. When it’s done right, the reader experiences a feeling of satisfaction as she works out the meaning that is encoded in the visual explanation. Aha.

To learn more about how writers can create effective visual explanations, participate in the upcoming STC web seminar, Building Visual Explanations: Practical Advice for Writers on 30 June. This session is based on the workshop that I presented recently at the 2010 STC Summit conference in Dallas.