Visual Design Solutions: Principles and Creative Inspiration for Learning Professionals

Chapter 12Show Them Where to Look

“There can be no guarantee that anyone will view and read an image you have created the way you would like them to.”

— Marc Galer

The Framework

THIS CHAPTER answers these questions:

• What are visual cues?
• How can visual guidance improve learning?
• What types of visual cues should I use?

Imagine you are walking down a city street. While pausing to look up at the tall buildings, you become aware of a pleasant breeze. Your mind travels to the movie you saw last night, but you are interrupted by a passerby who asks for directions. Sound typical? At any given moment, a person might be attending to sensory information or an internal conversation or responding to a situation. How does anyone ever focus?

Fortunately, we all have the ability to use selective attention, which allows us to attend to what is important in an ocean of sensory information and internal dialogue. Through selective attention, a person decides what information is processed and what is not. The rest is filtered out.

This also applies to seeing visuals in a course or presentation. What people notice while intentionally using selective attention is different from what they notice while aimlessly looking at a graphic with no goal in mind.

In this chapter, you will learn how to guide the viewers' eyes to ensure they pay attention to what is most important in your design.

Visual ...