October 8, 2008

Are You Sending Visual Mixed Messages?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 12:46 pm

It’s about Mixed Messages

In preparation for SOBCon09, I’ve been researching the importance of visuals as social media connection points. Visuals are power in helping us recognize where we’re safe, where we want to eat, what we want to buy, who we trust, who’s like us and who’s not.

Unfortunately, one thing is true about visual communication.

When we don’t know what we’re about, our visuals often contradict what we’re saying.

In that research, I came across this page in a report –

The page below is a screenshot from a pdf., called the Power of Visual Communication.

Visuals_Are_Important 2


The document leads with a quote in a blue box that says . . .

“We are becoming a visually mediated society. For many, understanding of the world is being accomplished, not through words, but by reading images.”
–Paul Martin Lester

I’m not a designer, but I’ve played a VP of Design and Editorial in a Publishing Company. My experience is that most people respond to a type heavy page like this by looking at the quote, the gray box, and the chart, and then skipping over the rest.

This page wasn’t communicating nearly as well as it might. The text and visuals say different things. The blue box quote says visuals are important. The page layout says they’re not. The visuals on the page — the picture up on the right and the chart below — are overwhelmed yards of tiny type.

  • I can’t “read” the photo in the upper right or understand how it relates.
  • This page walls me in with words.
  • Unnecessary words and long sentences make the reader dig to find what’s important. The whole first section is really unnecessary information with no real impact.
  • The most important sentence on the page is hidden in the tiny type. The blue box quote is not the most important they want you to carry forward to the next page.

How might it have worked with more power and more consistency? Few things are more fun than editing other people’s stuff. I looked at what I might do highlight key information on this page and how they might underscored the point about visual information by using the text in more visual ways.

I reproduced the page cutting and moving text — please use your imagination for precise alignment. (I repeat. I’m not a designer. These are thoughts, not a professional design.)

This is the new version.

Visuals_Are_Important Visual Version2


Some of the changes I made include these.

  • I enlarged the type in the blue box and the photo in the upper right corner.
  • I kept only the two most important sentences in the gray box and reset one far larger with visual emphasis. They work now a question and answer.
  • I deleted the entire first section and added white space above the type block.
  • I made pull quotes of two key thoughts, giving emphasis with a gray box to the most important idea.
  • I enlarged the chart to give it more importance, to the reflect the position of the blue box quote, and because the information relates to both columns of text.

Because they’re hard to compare full size, here they are side by side:

Visuals_Are_Important Visual Version3


My aim was to get the visuals and the text delivering that same message — the richer story that was hidden in the text.

We all make this mistake when don’t stop to access what we’re saying with our visual presentation.

Have you thought about the visuals that represent you — your avatars, your blog, your social media profile photos, your clothes, your videos, your words in text?

And can anyone tell me what that picture in the upper corner has to do with all of this?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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10 Comments to “Are You Sending Visual Mixed Messages?”

  1. October 8th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
    Richard Reeve said

    The picture leaves me pondering, and seems quite off base for the message. Perhaps that why three folks decided not to show up for the meeting? I’m more interested in those that didn’t arrive than those that did…

  2. October 8th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
    Robert Hruzek said

    I’m looking at the resulting page and thinking to myself, “Self, I wish I could do that with my blog!” (sound of light bulb clicking on)

    Actually, I’ve seen many of those elements on different blogs but have yet to see them incorporated into one platform. At least, one that’s easy to use. Sure would make blog reading much more visually enjoyable.

    And that photo up there makes me think of an “exploded diagram”. Of what, though, I have no idea. (Might be the engineer in me sees it that way.)

  3. October 8th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
    Amy Derby said

    Richard, I thought the exact same thing. “I wonder what the folks who didn’t show up to the meeting are doing right now. Is it more interesting than this?” Ha!

    Liz, I’m no designer either, and my own stuff is far from perfect. But if we get to play critic, I’m also wondering did they really need that big chart taking up space to make that point? I mean, I’m all for charts, but that one just seems silly… And you can only have so many boxes of text/quotes before you lose a reader’s attention or misdirect his focus. I wasn’t sure what to look at first (other than those empty chairs). I was pretty much finished after that. I only read the rest because I wanted to see what you did. And I still cheated and didn’t read the text in the middle. :-)

  4. October 8th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
    Jannie said

    A short slogan over that photo would probably bring it all home.

    Personally one of the hardest things I’ve ever done is watching tape of myself singing and performing. It was more than weird at first - couldn’t believe it was really me, my actions seemed like those of a stranger. But I got used to watching myself and really learned to hone my skills from the experience of seeing myself through other peoples’ eyes.

    So, for anybody who addresses crowds I’d really recommend taping yourself to see what you can improve upon (however excruciating it may be to watch at first.)

    Thanks, Jannie :)

  5. October 8th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi!
    I’ve been talking about visuals all afternoon. Like I said I’m no designer, but . . . I wanted you know that the main point was what is in that grey box on the right.

    That picture seems to have had the same effect on you all as it did on me. To tell the truth in the original I first thought it was some sort of mahogany flower before I noticed it was people.

  6. October 8th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Yeah, Richard,
    I think maybe I should have dumped the picture altogether. :)

  7. October 8th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Robert,
    We can lighten up your blog whenever you want to. Most of what I did was take things away. :)

  8. October 8th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    I had that thought about the chart, too, Amy. After all, the information is pretty darn simple. Then I felt sorry for the designer because he or she had so little work with to make a visual . . . and I didn’t want to take their only visual away. :)

  9. October 8th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Jannie,
    Though my response to the slogan is that if a photo needs explaining . . .

    I so agree with the video watching of presentations. Sometimes it’s not easy, but sometimes it can be fascinating.

  10. October 9th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
    New Age Bitch said

    Looks like we no longer think/process in such a linear fashion as we once did. We take in the entire page at once, giving weight to the various visual bits. Interesting.

    I thought the photo was a broken light bulb.

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