The Visual Communicator/Designer is involved in the page layout, the framework, the elements on a page; it is never ending for a Visual Communicator. Creativity is everything for a Visual Communicator. As a Technical Writer, you also have to be a visual designer. You need to be up on all the popular tool sets as well as be aware of the more popular methods of presentation. Let me elaborate on that. Popular methods of presentation include webinars, blogs, mobile, classroom, meetings, storyboards, and online lecturing. Presentations are relevant for delivering information to the target audience and to keep them interested, you have to be prepared with dynamic deliverables.
It is a good idea to have viewed a lot of presentations yourself to see what is liked or disliked. Presentations can’t just be graphs and its components. It has to be visually appealing to maintain the audience’s attention. It has to show relationships between all the different elements on a screen or page.
Images
Use illustrations, tables, charts, graphics, and even print screens; let the image do the describing and make sure you note any exceptions to any process. For images that also involve text, separate the graph from the text. Keep the audience’s attention, for example, by not just presenting a graph or chart; add in light bulbs, colorful fonts, or other images or patterns to highlight certain key points or areas
Humor
Whether it is process that you are presenting or a new product, it is a good idea to include a little bit humor or cartoon to break up the material or else the audience will be on information overload. Have the cartoon do the pointing for you. They need this humor to digest it all.
Text
For a presentation that might involve a lot of text, use bullet points and make it simple; less verbiage. Also, use icons, numbers, and/or alphabetize. Include flow diagrams when moving from one point to another instead of verbiage.
White Space
To reemphasize, make it visually appealing, logical, organized and helpful by separating out data or material. In other words, use a lot of white space. The simpler the design, the better.
Mobile Devices
With mobile devices being so popular, once you create your visual design, test them out on certain mobile devices to see how they appear. You may need to make adjustments so that images will not be cropped or cut off.
As with technical writing, visual designs have to be clear, concise, organized, and provide what your target audience requires.
Gail Zack Anderson, President of Applause, Inc., has nearly 20 years experience in training and coaching. She
provides individual presentation coaching, and leads effective presentation workshops and effective trainer workshops.
Theresa Pojuner is a Documentation Specialist with over 20 years of writing experience and is skilled in many areas of documentation, for example, Style Guides, Training Manuals and Test Cases, wth a specialty n Technical Writing and Procedures.