Visuals are not decoration. They are communication tools. Provide three strategic reasons why visuals are essential to effective web content. For each reason:

 • Clearly explain the concept 

• Provide a real-world example (not generic statements) 

Marks are awarded for depth, not surface-level answers. (6 Marks) 

It can be said that adding visuals with your content will not only increase chances of people interacting with your business, but it will also help drive home the message we are trying to get across. I wholeheartedly believe that we as a species are visual driven. As in we choose what we want with our eyes first before any other senses. To fully drive home the point why visuals are not just decoration, I have included three reasons to make all digital marketers think more clearly about what to create when making their content. All of these reasons and justifications were discussed directly in class on March 2nd.

Reason 1: 

Visuals cue emotional responses. We connect more with images because it puts our minds into the position of the photo itself. Visuals help us all connect with a message more because of the emotional cue. For example: A photo of a person drinking a can of coke on a summer day makes me feel good and makes me want to relax. I didn’t even try and think of a summary of who the person in the photo or where they were. My brain just immediately thought, “cool coke, warm day”.

Reason 2: 

Visuals Stick in our long term memory. Theres no way that we are going to remember a message we were sent today unprompted. However, with visuals to help support our messaging we actually will remember that message longer. Think of it like this. A message saying “war is bad” alone won't resonate with as many people as if the text were with a photo of a war-torn city. We will remember these visuals and call back to them with the message.

Reason 3:

Our brain processes images 60,000x faster than text. Let me repeat that. Sixty THOUSAND times. Knowing this info about us as a species, why wouldn’t we have visuals with our messaging?