Killer Visual Strategies

CHAPTER 4RULE 1: ALWAYS THINK ABOUT CON-TEXT (IT'S A CON WHEN THERE'S TOO MUCH TEXT)

Figure 4.1

Source: Nielsen, “How Little Do Users Read?”

When faced with more than six hundred words of copy, the average person only reads 20 percent of the text placed in front of them (Figure 4.1). That's only 120 words, the length of about two tweets. In a world where content can make or break your brand, the ways in which you respond to this fact will determine how successful your content is.

To put this into perspective, consider how you would react to a similar scenario. If you only had fifteen minutes to consume content, would you opt to read a well-written article about your topic of interest or would you prefer to watch a video on the same topic instead (Figure 4.2)? This question was posed to a diverse set of respondents, and 66 percent opted to watch a video rather than read a lengthy article.

With only 15 minutes to consume content, audiences prefer to ...

Figure 4.2

Source: Adobe, “The State of Content: Expectations on the Rise.”

Today's consumers balk at reading assignments and demand visual content instead—as part 1 of this book has shown. Despite this, brands continue to deliver “visual communication” that combines long-form text with illustrations and iconography in ...