Visual journalists are like eye doctors. Both help people see things with clarity.
“Which is clearer? Slide number one or number two?”
“Two.”
“How about now? Number two or number three?”
“Three.”
“Between three and four?”
“Still three.”
An eye doctor helps the patient find the clearest possible view by customizing the approach. One generalized prescription doesn’t work for all of the people who need glasses. The same is true of readers and viewers.
Some readers might prefer a fairly traditional form: a story with a headline. Others might understand things more clearly through a Q&A, a photograph, a map, a timeline, or a more conceptual approach.
Think about all of the other tools — prescriptions, if you will — that we have at our disposal to present information:
- Fever charts to show trends over time
- Bar charts to compare things side-by-side
- Collections of quotes, statistics, ratings, or facts to give perspective
- Cost comparisons
- Pie charts to show how something has been divvied up
- Mobilizing information (How to write your congressperson; where to get tickets)
- How-to guides (Need to weatherproof your house? Build an investment portfolio?)
- Bio profiles (Name, age, occupation, greatest personal accomplishment, greatest fear)
- Diagrams or renderings (Something that hasn’t been built yet? The best view of the local fireworks display?)
- Conceptual illustration (The significance of having a Living Will? The idealism of political aspiration?)
This list of tools just scratches the surface (and hopefully not the cornea).
So, like an eye doctor, the visual journalist’s job is to remember the needs of your constituents — the occasional readers as well as the devout, the people who scan for information as well as those who process every word. We need to make things as clear as possible for all of them.
