Visual design is defined as the use of imagery, color, shapes, typography, and form to enhance usability and improve the user experience.
Use cases for visual design can include :
For a visual based project, please consider five key questions:
Determining the Message: Similar to an elevator pitch in which you have a short amount of time to get your message across, the visual message must be concise. First, determine which elements are important but not essential to the message. Then, distill the important components down to only those critical pieces that aid in comprehension. Finally, write those concepts down.
Audience Analysis: Who is your visual project tailored for? There are central ways to approach an audience analysis depending on your project; it can be demographic, geographic, psychographic, situational. You must consider the setting- is it business or educational ?
The development stage from Purdue's OWL on an audience analysis can be adapted for visual project.
Creating a Visual Hierarchy: Keep the fundamentals of visual hierarchy in mind: size, color, contrast, alignment, repetition, proximity, whitespace, texture and style. These aspects can help you emphasize key points. You can then link these aspects to your messaging. You can seek inspiration from sample projects or templates.
Find Representative Images/Graphics: Sketch it out or storyboard ideas with a few images that encapsulate your main points. Build off of those graphics.
Keep accessibility in mind when visually communicating information: Designing for accessibility ensures that you are able to clearly communicate to a variety of audiences. A helpful checklist of items to consider when incorporating accessibility into your designs is available by clicking here.
Pro tip: During drafting, ask someone with no context regarding your project and no prior knowledge to see if they understand the messaging. This can provide you with a baseline for how the work is perceived.
A common way to establish a visual hierarchy is utilizing a layout in your design. Establishing a layout creates a visual flow for your design. This ensures that your audience is processing the narrative of your design in the correct order.
Using pre-attentive attributes is one effective way to focus your audience's attention on the intended information. Pre-attentive processing is the ability to process multiple visual properties unconsciously. Using pre-attentive attributes in your design helps to focus your audience's attention on the information you wish to communicate with your design.
Color can evoke different emotions and meaning. They should be used to emphasize your content as well as communicate mood and meaning. Using a color palette or color harmony can ensure that the colors in your design are consistent and visually appealing.
