Part “A”
- As discussed in class, please provide three reasons why visuals are important to web content. Please ensure you go into detail for each item. (6 Marks)
As we have discussed in class about visuals, the three reasons that I have chosen as why visuals are important to web content are: Visuals stick in long-term memory, transmit messages faster and they Improve comprehension.
- Visuals stick in long-term memory: One of the reasons visuals are important to web content is because they stick in your long term memory. The human brain processes images easier than it does text which is why visuals are important to include in our content. As we discussed in class the use of visuals can help to make sense out of the content which increases the chances of making your content more memorable and also helps your audience remember certain elements that you want them to remember. The chances of visuals sticking in your long-term memory also increase over time, people are more likely to remember 65% of the visual content they see over the written content 3 days later. The reason for Visuals sticking in your long-term memory is because visual information is stored in your long-term memory whereas text is more often stored in the short-term memory part of your brain. Using visuals in web content makes it easier for users to understand and retrieve information from a website which enhances the overall website experience of the user.
- Transmit messages faster: Another reason why visuals are important to the web is that they transmit images faster than text. Based on what we learned in class images are processed 60,000x faster than text is in your brain. It has been proven time and time again that we process visual information better than text which is why visuals are so important to web content. Along with us processing images better than text, they can be used to effectively and quickly communicate important information to our audience that may be harder to understand in text form or that may not be seen because of people’s short attention spans. For example, when writing web content it would be beneficial for us to determine if the information would be better understood in the form of text or a visual like a graph or chart. Overall using images is a great way to transmit your message quicker and also catch the attention of your audience because people prefer websites with more images.
- Improve comprehension: The final reason why visuals are important to web content that we discussed in class is that visuals improve comprehension. Visuals can help improve comprehension by making web content easier to understand and making it more accessible to viewers. Based on what we learned in class, visuals have been found to improve learning by up to 400%. They also affect people on a cognitive level and simulate imagination which enables people to process information more quickly. What makes visuals able to improve comprehension for the reader is visuals can be used to improve written content by breaking up long passages of text, highlighting key ideas, and adding context or explanation when needed. Visuals can be very helpful for improving comprehension, especially on topics that may be more complex which will make your content more accessible for everyone. Overall visuals improve comprehension for the reader by breaking up long passages of text, making information more memorable and engaging for the reader.
Ultimately using visuals is important to web content because visuals can drastically improve the user’s experience and make your content more memorable and accessible by transmitting messages faster and improving comprehension.