The Importance of Visual Language

Examples of visual data displays (pie charts, line graphs, bar graphs). Source: Morevectors.com

Everyone learns differently.  Some learn best through reading or hearing material, while others understand things best when they are actively involved in the material.  Still others comprehend information best through visual language. Graphics and images are essential to a majority of people’s ability to understand concepts and data, as they give concrete information and are memorable ways to recognize material.

One of the ways that visual language is best utilized is through data displays.  Data displays include graphs and charts that relay information to the reader through images, instead of text. Authors Charles Kostelnick and David Roberts discuss the importance of visual images and data displays in their book Designing Visual Language: Strategies for the Professional Communicators. In chapter seven of their book, they go into detail about the different ways data displays can alter an audience’s interpretation and perception of the information in front of them. The way that you arrange a graphical image and emphasize certain aspects of it impacts the clarity, conciseness, and tone of the message behind it.

Another reason why data displays are vital to portraying a message to an audience is that they present the information in a new way.  As Kostelnick and Roberts say,

“Most of the graphic coding in data displays does the important work of transforming numbers into abstract forms –bars, liens, slices of pies, dots, and icons. Although they may rely on text (labels, legends, titles) to define them, graphic elements do the heavy lifting because they alone represent the data.” (262)

This bar graph represents the percentages of people’s different learning styles in a study done by Professor Jessica Utts of UC Irvine.

Everyone processes and understands information in different ways, and many people understand things best through visual learning.  According to a study done by Professor Jessica Utts of the University of California, Irvine, 42% of learners are visual learners, in comparison to auditory, literate, or kinesthetic learners.  While there is a greater percentage who say that a reading/writing style of learning is more effective, the amount of visual learners is still highly significant. In addition, 76% of people say they remember visual representations (pictures, diagrams, charts, etc.) better than they remember verbal information.  Obviously, images and data displays are essential in order for people to understand information.

Kostelnick and Roberts realize the importance of this, which is why they stress how critical it is to represent data in the clearest, most representative way through graphical images. This kind of visual language can appeal to many audiences for various reasons. Kostelnick and Roberts believe data displays are useful for rhetoric, for example,

“Some readers of professional documents prefer to see visual representation of numerical data rather than to read the numbers in text form.  These readers find data displays more interesting and more attractive; without the data display, they simply might not pay attention to the data.” (245)

Another reason they give is that data in text form can be too complex to understand, and visual representation creates an easier medium to understand the information. Some people also just prefer the different style of the graphical data. Data displays take the information from the text and numbers to create a new and comprehensible perspective on how to interpret the data.

In my own perspective, I have realized the importance of data displays, as the visual language can sometimes be more effective than textual or verbal language.  Visual language gives concrete information that is easier to interpret without much examination. It does half the work of deciphering the data for us.  So whether one is using graphs and images to explain science to elementary students or complex graphs to represent major economic trends in a Fortune 500 company, visual language is an essential aspect to understanding information.