Using Illustrations to Help Reach Visual Learners

Do you remember back in elementary school through high school, teachers would talk about the different types of learners? Today we know of four different types of learners: visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic. The largest of the four types? Visual learners. In fact about 65% of the population fall under this category.

With such a large part of the population being visual learners, how are we missing the mark and how can we focus on such a large audience?

In school, the best way to target these types of learners was with diagrams and models in textbooks and crudely drawn on chalkboards. Today we are living in an information age where a startup’s website is key and the content on that website is the perfect spring board for success.

If we want to target the visual learners out there we need to do the same thing that our textbooks and teachers did. We need to make sure that we explain to our potential customers exactly what it is that we offer to them, what problem we are trying to solve in their every day life and we must do so in a way that can target this large chunk of the population.

Probably the two best ways of doing this are through illustration and animation, both of which are tied together in that illustrations can be made into animations. We can create illustrated diagrams that accompany text and help to explain the process of what your startup does. If able, we can then take those diagrams and animate them, creating explainer videos that can live, not only on your site but else where on the web for people to share and view at their leisure.

There have been many times that I’ve visited a startup’s website and when I’m trying to figure out what they do or what they offer I’m faced with copy the length of a college paper. Instantly I get overwhelmed and after reading one sentence drop off from the site.

The best sites invest in illustrations and explainer videos to not only grab their audience’s attention but to teach them what they offer them. Don’t be the later, you’re invested in the future of your product or service, invest in the tools that will reach a large chunk of the population.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can sell the idea of illustrations to your boss or client you can check out the original posting of this article on my blog.