These days, it’s usually a visual element (film, photo, illustration) that gets people to slow their scroll and react in the middle of the constant barrage of information and impressions our brains have to process. Why? Because visuals can awaken a lot of emotion – fast. Joy, sorrow, curiosity, anger, desire, jealousy – just to name a few. And it’s exactly that ability to quickly affect our emotions, and in turn behavior, that makes visual expression so powerful.
Visual by nature
We humans are visual beings. 90% of the information we notice and that’s transmitted to our brains is visual. It’s been important for our survival as a species to be able to quickly process and interpret visual impressions, so our brains have gotten extra good at it. Even as little babies, we learn to interpret facial expressions, body language and other visual cues. Today, 65% of people are thought to be visual learners, which means the majority of us need visual aids in order for us to best identify, understand and remember new things. Studies show that we remember 80% of what we see, 20% of what we read and 10% of what we hear. So clearly, the right visual aids are a powerful way to both capture people’s attention and to communicate information. A single image or film clip can convey much more than a detailed text block. Plus, images and film can cross language barriers in a way that text simply can’t.
It’s better to show than tell
On websites, people barely read the text. Rather, we scan the page looking for something that catches our interest – usually headlines and images. The typical website user reads about 20% of the text content, according to the Nielsen Norman Group. Visuals help with scanning because we process images much faster than text. The human brain is incredibly fast at processing and attaching meaning to a symbol. Researchers from MIT have seen evidence that the human brain can identify images as quickly as 13 milliseconds.
Or sometimes show AND tell
When it comes to learning or fixing a problem these days, many of us expect an instructional video rather than a text-heavy manual. When I wanted to get my new portable flash unit to sync with my camera's built-in flash, was my first instinct to look it up in the camera's seriously boring and fist-thick manual? Nope. Where do I turn to find out how to make a flash sync? YouTube, of course. A quick search and bingo! – at least twenty videos showing exactly what to do specifically for my camera and flash. Fantastic! The great thing about film is that the combination of auditory elements and moving images is tailormade for giving instructions. And YouTube has upped everyone’s show-and-tell game. I never cease to be amazed at how many instructional videos there are on YouTube. Everything from hacking IKEA furniture to how to impress on a first date with a perfectly executed three-course dinner. The majority of YouTube viewers watch videos for help with hobby, study or work-related issues.
Visual elements awaken emotions
Our brains love pictures and videos. The combination of images, colors and sounds helps us relate to different moods and emotions. A picture of a cute puppy gives us a stronger experience than a descriptive text about how cute the puppy is. Better yet, a film with the right pictures, colors and sounds gives an even stronger experience and we just totally melt for that sweet puppy.
