GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR VISUALS

In an ideal document, the text and visuals are balanced--they complement each other. Achieving a proper balance between text and visuals is not difficult if we observe some guiding principles governing visuals use.

1. Visuals should emphasize important ideas and be properly placed to ensure maximum impact.

Visuals should be used for the high points of the messagethe most convincing data, the unexpected problem, the key recommendation, the revealing trend.

Because visuals are naturally emphatic, we must reserve their use for important information. We risk confusing or perplexing our readers when we waste visuals on unimportant or unnecessary information.

Visuals must be placed strategically to achieve maximum impact:

Visuals that appear too early are ineffective
since the reader will not be able to properly
appreciate or comprehend them.

Visuals that appear too late are useless because
the reader will already have read the text
information that is finally being visualized.

Ideally, readers should encounter a visual immediately after a concept has been introduced but before any lengthy explanation or elaboration has occurred.

2. Visuals should be introduced in the text before they appear in the document.

A visual that suddenly appears without introduction is confusing to readers. We should present an informative and specific introduction of the visual in the text before it appears in the document.

The only exception to this principle occurs when a visual appears at the top of a new page. In this instance, the introduction to that visual should occur early in the text appearing on that page rather than on the preceding page.

3. Visuals should be created before text is written.

Because visuals are so emphatic, we should give them significant attention early in the process of creating our document. They should never be an afterthought.

As we begin to define our message, we should list the important ideas that we want to convey and identify those ideas that might be visualized. In longer documents, we might even do a mock-up of the documenta collection of projected pages with potential visuals and accompanying text blocked in.

Later, we'll use this mock-up to check up on how and where our readers will encounter our visuals. We will want to eliminate any unnecessary visuals--those that present extraneous information or that do not present information as effectively as the text.

4. Visuals should be appropriately matched to the readers of a document.

As with text information, visuals should be matched to the skill and orientation of the readers. Good writers carefully analyze their prospective readers, adapting text and visual information to their readers' needs.

When a document will be read by readers having a range of backgrounds, it's a good idea to (1) vary the readability of the text and visuals (allowing readers to selectively read that which is appropriate) or (2) scope the bulk of the text and visual information to the interests and ability of the least technical of the projected readers.

5. Visuals should be simple and uncluttered.

A good visual focuses on one idea, conveying it sharply and purposefully. We should not ask a visual to do more than a single task.

An effective visual is uncluttered, containing nothing that is unrelated to its central purpose. We must identify our key concept and then build our visual to communicate it. All extraneous information should be eliminated, leaving only the bare essentials of the message to be delivered.

Captions for visuals should be informative and specific, stating not only what the visuals are about but also what readers should learn from them. Indicative titles that merely indicate the nature of the visual are not nearly as helpful.

Good captions generally contain a subject and a verb. They are informative without being lengthy.

7. Visuals should be appropriate for their task.

Visuals exist in many formscharts, illustrations, graphs, maps, photographs, tableseach having its own unique communicative capabilities. The proper choice of visual depends upon what we are trying to achieve with the visual.

Charts depict relationships between two or more variables, possibly at distinct points in time. They can also illustrate the flow and relationship of steps in a process, display organizational relationships, or identify the relationship of parts to a whole.

Illustrations and diagrams show conceptual objects, providing perspectives on existing objects or assemblies that photographs cannot capture. They can show exploded views, focusing attention on smaller parts of a larger assembly.

Graphs depict the relationship of two or more variables and show how those variables change. They also permit comparisons and show trends.

Maps show topographical relationships and indicate scale and distance.

Photographs convey realism and show readers exactly what something looks like.

Tables permit quick comparisons of data by displaying information in rows and columns.

The many forms of visuals that are available give us a broad range of alternatives for transforming our ideas and data into meaningful visual representations.

8. Visuals should be oriented horizontally and appropriately sized and formatted.

Visuals should be oriented in similar fashion to the text in our document. Our readers should be able to "read" our visuals without turning the page sideways.

Standard page layouts for visuals are full-page, half -page, and quarter-page formats. Larger visuals may be printed on larger paper, folded, and either inserted into a flap at the end of the document or bound into the document as a "foldout."

The size and format of our visuals will depend upon the information we are presenting and the type of visual that has been selected. For example, a table with twice as many columns as rows requires a format with more width than height, e.g., half-page format or a foldout. If we elect to switch columns and rows, we can create a table that is higher than it is wide and use a full-page or quarter-page format.

9. Visuals should have important ideas emphatically defined.

Emphatic devices (underlining, italics, boldface type, larger type sizes, shading, line patterns, color) can highlight important words and data in visuals. The device or devices we select should be consistent for all visuals within our document.

Color is particularly useful as an emphatic device in a visual. It can help our readers locate information by highlighting special features, or it can assist them in distinguishing between different phases, parts, or configurations. We must be careful of using too much color, lest we make our visual look kaleidoscopic.

10. Visuals should not impede the flow of the text.

Although visuals should be placed as close as possible to their introductions without impeding the general flow of the text, we should not create unnecessary breaks in the narrative through the awkward placement of our visuals. In a good document, text and visuals must work together harmoniously to achieve effective communication.