At the 2009 International Professional Communication Conference I had the pleasure of meeting with Suguru Ishizaki. Suguru gave an amazing presentation of his efforts to develop a framework for understanding (and ultimately teaching) effective visual-verbal communications. The big take-away for me was that a skilled designer can use fairly subtle patterns of visuals and typography to create audience experiences that begin with the first glance. Just as importantly, subtle breaks in these patterns can create ambiguity that may impede communication.
His paper (which won the best paper award) describes a model that captures the types of experiences an audience can have through a printed publication or presentation.
The Author
For example., a head shot of a person along with an autograph and a block of text (such as seen on the editor’s page in magazines) is a pattern that allows you to feel the presence of the author. Without the signature, however, the pattern is incomplete and the intention is obscured. Is it a first person experience or perhaps a story about that person?
Third Person Interior
A photograph of a hand-written letter (as contrasted with the letter itself) gives the audience the sense that the author is referring to the mind of the writer of the letter. Likewise, photographs of people displaying significant facial expressions can signal a wide variety of emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, etc.
External World
The simple display of physical objects is the most common approach to providing the audience with the experience of the world outside of the minds of the or some third person. Interestingly, a small tweak to this pattern can a sense of recommendation by the speaker. For instance, the simultaneous display of multiple product photographs with captions.
Public Ideas
Public ideas are those shared by or open to the public such as scientific findings. Patterns that signal public knowledge include the display of photographs showing scenes of teaching or existing publications (e.g., newspaper clippings). Typographic patterns such as citations and block quotes also provide the experience of public knowledge.
Interactivity
The most obvious way to use visuals to create interactivity in a presentation is through the display of questions. Other experiences of interactivity can be created through the incremental display of steps in a process or the like.
Ishizaki, S. Toward a Unified Theory of Visual-Verbal Strategies in Communication Design, In Proceedings of the 2009 International Professional Communication Conference..