Barker chapter 13: Using Graphics Effectively

In this chapter, Barker discusses how to use visual displays to the advantage of the end user. Barker promotes a liberal use of visual elements, so long as each visual is meaningful and useful to the user in some way. Therefore, Barker recommends using visual displays to accomplish the following rhetorical tasks:

• Showing how the program’s tools apply to the user’s job
• Showing the results of the program’s operations
• Presenting an overview of the program so the user can understand when and why to use the program
• Suggesting functions and uses of the program
• Making abstract concepts into concrete images through metaphors (which can be extended throughout a document)
  

Visuals could certainly be used in other situations as well, but only if the visual helps to accomplish a rhetorical task. Avoid using un-cropped screen captures or excessively complex pictures that would distract or confuse the reader. Instead, cut all information that is not necessary to the user understanding the visual and its place in the document.

Barker assumes that his readers will already know how to create visual displays, so instead of discussing the process of producing a visual, he outlines some general guidelines for using and placing visual displays within a document.

1. Identify needs for graphics by your users
Visuals can be used to answer some common user questions: Where is something? What is something, and how does it work? How do I do something? Where am I in the program/document? What is the big picture?

Barker defines two types of visual cues that can be useful in answering some of these questions: access indicators and progress indicators. Access indicators tell the user where certain things are located in a document or program, and progress indicators tell the user where they are in the document or program. These can tell the user where something is, where they are, or what the structure of the program is.

2. set graphics styles
Consistency is next to godliness in the editing world. Set your visual standards early on and stick to them throughout the document. Many documentation programs have object styles functions built in to help with this.

3. revise and edit
Work with graphics after the text has been written. Barker promotes a balance of text and visual, so that one doesn’t overpower the other. The visuals should play a supplemental role to the text, to help the user retain information more effectively. Don’t let a visual act as a substitute for naming something.

Barker also makes several other specific points about standardizing graphic elements:

• Not all images require titles, unless they are official visuals or copywritten
• Labels are not always necessary, unless you refer to several visuals in the same chapter or section
• Always place a visual as close as possible to the text that refers to it
• Keep rules straight and of uniform size
• Keep visuals within the margins, and crop out all unnecessary parts of them
• Only use reserved colors (red for danger, yellow for caution) for their intended purpose

4. revise for typography
Here, Barker refers to visual typography as the arrangement and construction of the images based on a logic. This refers to the individual elements that make up the visual, such as color, emphasis, alignment, cropping, etc. Barker advises us to use the following methods to enhance the clarity and emphasis of a visual:

• Make important things larger
• Make important things darker
• Make important things central
• Make important things sharper
• Align related things
• Put first things left, later things right