Visuals are an excellent way to effectively communicate both simple and complex information in a clear manner. Personally, I would rather consume information via a visual rather than a long block of wordy text. However, it is important to set some guidelines in order to ensure everyone is on the same page. When you write a document, there are generally accepted rules such as spelling in a standard way, using sentences to build paragraphs, and using paragraphs to distinguish between different ideas. In English language, we tend to read left to right and we tend to expect to be able to read information in a general left to right flow. This means that there is an expectation that when we pick up a document written in English, we will see a flow of text from left to right. A document without this flow obscures the message the author is trying to communicate. The same concept applies to visuals. We should build the expectation of consistency in order to ensure maximum ability to comprehend the message we are communicating.
The Consistency Rule of Visual Grammar
The appearance of equivalent shapes, lines, and text in a visual should be consistent (i.e., the same).
Visuals are meant to help communicate your message - not detract from your message. Your goal in all business communication is to effectively deliver a message. You will not reach this goal if you cause any confusion. The most common source of confusion is inconsistent formatting. Thus, the visual aids you use should be consistent and, when presented, follow a logical sequence. You can use visuals to summarize a project, explain parts of project, or to explain a business process. Once you have selected the general style of your visuals, it is important not to switch up the style of your visuals. Change will distract the viewer and it is more important for the viewer to pay attention to the message of the visual, rather than a change in color or font. Ad you can see, the visuals that I have used in this blog post are consistent in both color and font choices. Keeping visuals consistent is not only limited to visuals such as mind maps, flowcharts, and org charts, but all includes marketing materials, business materials, and content that your business might produce. Click here for a great article summarizing the building blocks of visual consistency. The article highlights four ways to create visual consistency.
The One-Page Rule of Visual Grammar
The visual must fit on one page and the text must remain readable. If the visual is intended to be viewed on screen, consider the "page" to be the area of the screen that is visible without having to scroll.
Visuals are most effective when they are viewed as a whole, rather than trying to view all the information over several pages or through a lot of scrolling on the screen. Your visuals should condense complex information into a form that is both quickly digestable and shows relationships between concepts. Creating visuals that are simple enough to digest, but effective in delivering information can be a challenge. However, it is crucial for impact and to avoid overwhelming a person viewing a visual with too much information. Visuals can be scaled to fit on a printed page or on a screen, but the visual should not be scaled by so much that the text in the shapes in no longer legible. When there is too much information to fit on one page, you should break up the visual into parts. An example of this might be a large collection of processes and workflows for your business or a large org chart.
Recently, SmartDraw was used to describe all the processes for a printing company. Each process was broken down into more bite sized pieces, but hyperlinked. You can view this example here.
For an org chart, you can break up the hierarchy of your organization into smaller charts by first producing a high level summary of the top executives to communicate the overall structure of the company. Then, you can break down the different departments of your company and decribe their organization in separate, but hyperlinked org charts.
With these two basic rules of Visual Grammar, you can greatly improve the effectiveness of the visuals you create and present. What do you think of these tips? Do you have other methods you use when creating your visuals?
