The visuals your users never saw…wait that’s most of them¶
Description
This talk shares practical evidence-informed ways to design and integrate visuals into your documentation. The ultimate goal of including visuals in documentation is to focus the learner’s attention. However, too often visuals end up being scrolled over or worse distracting learners. The learning sciences provide a rich perspective on images for learning. While instructional designers have a complex list of terms to describe visuals for learning, I’ll break down the key terms to understand when categorizing visuals. Moreover, I’ll share how to include different visuals that support the aims of your documentation–instructing learners.
This talk will focus on practical takeaways from evidence on how to best integrate visuals into instructional content. Firstly, I’ll bust the myth of learning styles. Then, I’ll explain why carefully chosen visuals can support all learners to get more out of your written content. I’ll run through do’s, don’t’s, and nice-to-haves when considering diagrams or other visuals within your documentation. Finally, I’ll provide some ideas on how to get started updating the visual language of your documentation.
- Conference: Write the Docs Portland
- Year: 2023
