Effectiveness of Visual Communication Methods used in a Publication - Essay Example

Effectiveness of Visual Communication Methods used in Publication Before I shed light on the Effectiveness of Visual Communication I deem it prerequisite to describe the core objective of communications. The essence of communications is to have your message registered into a reader’s/listener’s brain. In this context, I have studied 7 communication principles (7C’s) of effective communications – i.e. Completeness, Conciseness, Consideration, Concreteness, Clarity, Courtesy and Correctness.

However, as & how the world continued progressing, ways & means of things kept on changing so did the style & medium of communications. There has always been a communications Dilemma. Studies show that people are able to remember 10% of what they hear; 20% of what they read, but about 80% what they visualize and do. Thus, in this era, use of visual aids has increased manifold in almost every sector/industry the world over. For instance, if at one hand it has led to boosting sales, marketing, publicity/ promotions, etc.

by means of capturing consumers’ brain, on the other hand it has facilitated imparting knowledge or knowledge sharing in academia. As (Koneru, I. 2009) stated, “Glossary supplements the learning modules. Additionally, various visual aids such as pop-up window and rollovers are to be integrated, wherever necessary. These visual aids facilitate maintaining concise modules instead of lengthy text, so as to retain the attention of the BRAOU learners”. Research indicates that consumers overloaded with information exposed to 300 ads per day, over 100,000 per year.

Besides that, they probably don’t care very much in the first place. So how would you communicate with overloaded & uninvolved consumers? To answer this question one needs to understand that like a computer memory system, a human brain too has the same series of memory elements in his/her stimuli – i.e. Sensory Register, Short Term Memory and Long Term Memory. Therefore, to penetrate through a human brain whilst ensuring storage of information for a longer period of time, visuals have been very effective to achieve this goal.

Visuals work superb whilst appealing a consumer to click OFF from scan environment, and ON to create memory. As Sedlack, S. & Keller (2009) stated, “Effective visual communication is not optional for managers and business communicators; it is required. In modern business organizations, our audiences are both demanding and impatient. They want good, persuasive content, but they want to be able to read quickly, digest the information, and decide what to do next. When they read a data document, they want to find the numbers at a glance, immediately see the relationship between numbers, and understand the business implications”.

It is a myth that a human brain will not create a memory unless something significant occurs. Hence, if we talk in context of advertisements or catalogues, we must create something significant with the information material to get a customer's brain to pay attention and create a memory for your message. The (3) three core attributes (Significance, Involvement and Intrigue) that can get your customer's brain to click ON, cannot be achieved without visuals. Another very important point, that research has proved, is that men and women process information differently in their brains.

Studies show that men respond better when text is reinforced by visual product demonstrations or visuals that show benefits while women process verbally descriptive information better. Well, I understand it is going to be a very vast topic and effectiveness of visuals can be proved by giving lot many examples of certain products’ catalogues or tutorial or directional map, etc. etc. However, keeping in mind perception of a lay man, I squeeze it up with a small example that I had personally experienced.

At times, when packed milk was introduced in Pakistan, I bought a pack to check the taste. When I came to how to open it up (where to cut from) I had no idea so had a trouble as there was no mark/direction arrow. I went back to the shopkeeper, who took that back and got me another pack which had a dotted line with scissors picture atop. I conclude with an understanding that use of visuals in one way or other gives a boost not only your sale but also leaves a good image in consumer’s mind. Reference Koneru, I. (2009). Designing Information Literacy Modules for Distance Learners in India.

Asian Journal of Distance Education, 7(2), 66-81. Sedlack, S. & Keller (2009). Graphics and Visual Communication for Managers. OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.