Kathy Sierra, coauthor of the Head First book series totally hit the mark on her recent blog posting: Words + Pictures > Words. To whit:
And even seemingly simple ideas can take a lot more time to convey if you don't use pictures. We value our reader's time tremendously, and that's a big part of why we are so graphic-heavy.
How many boring, text heavy powerpoint presentations have you endured? Countless, I'm sure. I think most people inherently understand that pictures get the point across faster and more effectively than just words. So why the endless powerpoint copy? Simplicity scares people. Simple connotes unsophistication or simple-mindedness. After all, we read books with pictures when we were kids, right?
But nothing could be further from the truth. Simplicity creates an easier sell. It creates an instant "I get it" from your prospect and from there a dialog begins.
My company used simplistic imagery like the one at the top of this posting to build a "how we do it" poster. It was the most successful trade show we've ever experienced. People were intrigued by the illustration and had fun while tracing the life cycle of our product. And most of all, they got it. Quickly. And once they got it, they wanted to know more.
We oft hear of the pen and sword analogy. But nothing cuts through the clutter of the prospect's mind like a picture.
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