A Visual Connection

"At the beginning of a project the screen is a blank canvas ready for you, the multimedia designer, to express your craft" (Vaughan 278).

Images, which consist of clip art, line art photographs, scanned images, drawings, and graphical elements, which includes white space, and typography, can convey messages instantly. Images offer the viewer a visual connection with the information. The computer screen conveys much more than the message; it is the viewer's "connection to all of the project's content" (Vaughan 278). The most important consideration is to select graphics and images that will not only enhance the project but also support the data and information presented on the screen.

An important factor in multimedia is the ability to communicate the purpose of the document using graphical images. Horton explains that the ability for images or pictures to improve communication, especially for technical subjects, is well documented. Images can clarify data by showing trends, illustrating abstract concepts, and drawing attention to essential information (1996:286). Being able to communicate visually through graphics, text, and the use of white space requires that communicators not only become skilled wordsmiths, but that they also become visually literate. Gribbons discusses visual literacy as the idea that visual forms communicate in a way similar to language.