Why images are so important
Our brains are programed to respond to images. We read images. As I just read in Scientific American Mind “…we find that this region [of the brain], before it responds to words, has a preference for pictures of objects and faces.”
Let images pull some of the weight
The website for Be Food Safe, a joint program of the USDA and the Partnership for Food Safety Education, does a great job reinforcing their messages with images. There are at least five messages on the page below but the author and designer have distilled the main one for us—Chill food at 40 degrees.
Compare this page to the USDA’s own page on the same subject. Which do you think will be more effective in changing behavior? Which will be remembered?
I’m willing to bet that the USDA page took a lot less time to write and design. Clean and simple is always hard work. But it has better odds for success.
I initially wrote several more paragraphs for this, but two images did a much better job of making my point.
