Providing a Visual Guide: Helping a Reader Understand Visual Design

Visual Directive

Source

The purpose of images and text in newspapers, magazines, text books, etc. is to effectively communicate their information. Authors can aid this process by providing a visual map for the reader/viewer that allows him/her to logically follow the sequence that the information is being presented in. This map directs a reader's attention from one piece of information as it guides them along the path to the conclusion. Kress and van Leeuwen in chapter 6, "The Meaning of Composition," in their book Reading Images discuss the techniques that authors may utilize while deciding how to best achieve this.

Given and New
The first characteristic of direction that Kress and van Leeuwen mention is that of the "given" and the "new." The given information is information that the readers are assumed to be familiar with and already know. When presenting given information, authors usually place it on the left since our culture reads from left to right. This tactic allows the reader to ground themselves in the context before moving on to new information or claim. The new information is placed on the right and is usually a presentation of the author's claim. 

The ad above is one for Bose headphones that is arguing that they are so good at canceling out noise that this rower can't even hear the waterfall behind him. In this instance, the "given" is on the left: a man rowing on the water without a care in the world; people universally understand relaxation. The focus, however, is on the "new" located to the right. Here lies the giant waterfall, the twist in the assumed story. Thus, the advertisement makes a great visual argument by making use of the left-right, given to new, strategy. I found this ad among many others in a blogpost about humorous ads, which has many other great visual arguments. That's essentially what makes advertisements effective. This website describes very well what makes up good advertising on their site.

Ideal and Reality
Another way to make a visual argument is to have the ideal part of the information on the top of the image with the reality part of the information located at the bottom of the image. This allows the readers eyes to move from top to the bottom as they do while reading. In doing this, combined with the strategy above, a reader is guided through information rather than left wading through the information themselves. 

Salience
Salience is something that most people don't usually think about because it is intuitive to us, but usually one image in a presentation is prominent and draws our eyes. Of course, you don't think about this because you do what is natural. If the designer  has done their job, then your eye should go to the image that is biggest and in central focus.

For example in this Listermint ad, the pastor is the central focus and the reader then notices the congregation cowering in the back corner after they take in the central scene of the preaching pastor. This also makes great use of the given and new as mentioned above. 

Linear vs. Non-linear Reading
This has been a topic in other blog posts, but society seems to be moving away from reading blocks of texts to scanning and power-reading based off of headlines and sub-headings. People have the ability to access more of the information that they want to read and more ability to sift out that information in which they are not interested. So instead of reading an entire article, a reader can scan down until they see a sub-heading that applies to what they were searching for. As Kress and van Leeuwen say, the reader is able to "use" the text rather than read it. I would agree with this. That would be why my blog is formatted with bolded subheadings, for reader ease and accessibility. Visual images also help to break up the linear reading since they provide an interest for the eye and require different thought processes to occur in order to interpret the argument.