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Visual Literacy
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Tech Writers: Feed Your Brain with Picturesby Laurie Lamar If you’re a technical writer, you’ve probably heard that you’re supposed to learn new skills to be competitive in the new millennium. Sure, you know how to write—but that’s not enough. You’re supposed to know how to present information effectively. And because humans have a large visual cortex, this means you should use pictures ... not just text.What does this mean to you? For just about every type of technical communication—Web pages, online helps, PDF files, installation procedures, even parts catalogs—you’ll need to consider the visual layout as well as the textual content. To do this effectively, you must pay attention to graphics. You don’t have to learn Photoshop or buy clip art—those things may come later. You do need to appreciate visual design. There is only one problem: technical writers excel in verbal and analytic skills—so-called left-brain functions. How can you come up to speed on art, graphics, pictures—those right-brain things? And how can you do it in your “spare time”? Here’s a suggestion: feed your brain with pictures:
It’s a four-step process. Step 1: Look Around As Deb Braun’s companion article explains, examples of visual design are everywhere. For example: Read design magazines. You can find these at most large libraries and bookstores. Some of them are expensive, but they may be tax-deductible; ask your accountant. (These magazines’ Web sites don’t include much content from the printed magazine, so if you want to get the whole picture, look at the printed magazine as well.)
You can also examine visual design in other types of magazines, such as skateboard magazines (really!), lifestyle magazines such as Blue, and even mainstream magazines like Martha Stewart’s Living. Jot down things you see. Not in words, of course, but in pictures! Get a sketch pad or use blank pages in your appointment book. No, you don’t have to know how to draw. Stick figures and wobbly lines are okay. Cruise Web sites. Because Web design often does not translate well to paper, looking at Web sites for inspiration is most appropriate for online designers. Try these sites as a starting point:
Step 2: Save Things in a Graphic Inspiration Folder This could be a literal, physical folder; a set of bookmarks in your web browser; or both. Whatever the format, your “inspiration folder” is a collection of things that look good to you. Just put it in the folder. Step 3: Look in Your Folder When you’re eating lunch … or you’re tired of writing … or you need to do something graphical, take a peek in your “inspiration folder.” Notice your reaction. Do you still like all the things in your folder? Why, or why not? Is there a common theme? It may be difficult to articulate those answers. If you’d like a quick summary of basic visual-communication terminology, see Deb Braun’s article, or try Pomona College’s Visual Literacy Project at http://www.pomona.edu/visual-lit/intro/intro.html. If you don’t want to learn the terminology, that’s okay too. The point is, you’re paying attention to visual design. Step 4: Repeat as Needed As your “inspiration folder” grows, remember that it’s for inspiration—it’s not clip art. Don’t copy someone else’s design, no matter how cool it is. This is possibly illegal, and bad karma besides. Instead, use elements of someone else’s design—a font, a color scheme, and so on—as points of reference for your own ideas. You Can’t Do it All Looking at pretty pictures won’t turn you into an artist. You’ll still need to hire a professional graphic designer for many of your graphics needs. But if you’ve acquired some appreciation of visual design, you should know what you like, and maybe why you like it. This knowledge will help you communicate with the graphic designers that you hire. Familiarity Breeds Familiarity Can exposing yourself to visual design really increase your own design acumen? Consider this. People begin to be good writers by—among other things—reading good writing. Through experience, we develop internal standards of good writing … then we use these standards as models for our own writing. I believe an appreciation of visual design can be acquired in the same way—feeding your right brain with pictures, as you feed your left brain with words. As you’ve heard a thousand times, to communicate information effectively, you need both. So, in the end,
Laurie Lamar is a technical marketing communicator specializing in Web sites and presentations. She welcomes your feedback at lamar@lamar-online.com. Comments?
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