Visual Design Solutions: Principles and Creative Inspiration for Learning Professionals

Chapter 14Enhance Meaning

“Meaning is what the brain performs in a dance with the external environment.”

— Colin Ware

The Framework

THIS CHAPTER answers these questions:

• How can I use visuals to improve comprehension?
• How do I ensure my graphics are interpreted correctly?
• How can I avoid overwhelming the audience?

If you typically create meaning through words, you will enjoy increasing your use of visual language to provide another channel for creating meaning. A key goal of visual design is effective communication. Helping the audience make sense of information through the visual dimension adds clarity to explanations.

As you generate ideas for visualizing content, you'll discover there are many ways you can extend the meaning of an idea or concept by using the suggestions discussed next.

In this chapter, you'll learn practical ways to make content more meaningful through the use of cultural conventions, visual metaphors, chunking, visualizing, and other techniques. These approaches are effective because they are attuned to how we understand and learn.

Start with Cultural Conventions

If you want to achieve clear communication, a good place to start is by using your culture's visual language. In every culture, there are commonly accepted meanings and uses of imagery and icons that most people recognize and understand. When people become fluent in their culture's visual ...