From the course: Presentation Design with Adobe Express by Adobe

Using illustrations - Adobe Express Tutorial

From the course: Presentation Design with Adobe Express by Adobe

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Using illustrations

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- Our brains process visuals much faster than words. In fact, some estimates say visual content gets communicated about 60,000 times faster than text. Think about that. I can show you something and there's a good chance you'll understand it at lightning speed. So why exactly does this happen? Well, when your brain processes a visual, it encodes it once as an image, and again, as a word, many scientists believe this is why you can recall visuals better because words are only encoded once. For example, when you see this graphic, first, you process what it looks like, and then you assign it a meaning. If you had just seen the word apple, you would've only processed the meaning of it. When I was in college, for my senior year thesis, I explored best practices in public health communication. I ran an experiment that showed two groups two different slides with the same information, but one used illustrations and the other did not. I wanted to see what happened in terms of memory recall when the information was visual versus textual. This example used the six food groups. The first example is a slide with the food groups typed out. The second example illustrates foods that belong to each category. When I tested slides with groups of participants, I found that with the illustration, the average viewer correctly recalled five of the six food groups. Those who viewed the first slide could, on average, recall less than half. Now, the first slide still has design features. It makes use of colors and hierarchy, yet it is still an ineffective slide. Now, another consideration I want you to keep in mind is style. The illustration style you choose can influence the tone of your presentation. Let me show you an example where the content was the same, but the illustration style differed. The first slide has a hand-drawn whimsical feel. The width of the lines are uneven and playful. This looks like it would be aimed towards children and students. Now look at the same slide, but with the illustrations as 2D icons. This feels different, right? It's a lot more formal. This version I could see being used during a corporate presentation on employee wellness. Same content, but two entirely different audiences. Before you choose a graphic style, remember to ask, what will your audience expect to see? All right, so one last thing. I want you to think back to when you were a child just learning to read. We often refer to children's books as picture books because an equal part of the story is told through illustrations rather than words alone. As a child, your vocabulary is limited. The illustrations aren't there for decoration. They're there to help you comprehend what is going on in the story. You should think about using illustrations in presentations the same way authors do in picture books. By using illustrations in this manner, you give your audience a chance to connect your words with ideas they already have prior knowledge on. Trust me, illustrations can be what causes your audience to shift from "What do you mean?" To, "Oh, now I see."

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