and why it is becoming more and more important in retail.
This article deals with visual communication focused on retail.
Visual communication comprises all information perceived by the eye, it is omnipresent in print media, in electronic media such as websites and television programs, and we encounter it in shop windows and on billboards in an urban environment.
In the digital age, retail stores are visually perceived by their digital proxies on the Internet. As digitization increases, the digital representatives are increasingly determining the corporate image. A development that must not be ignored by retailers.
Florist, hairdresser, bicycle seller, fitness studio owner for all, it is profitable to think or let think about visual communication. In customer communication the proportion of images is increasingly growing in relation to text. Taking this into account and in order to communicate professionally, retailers need to acquire reading and writing skills for images in addition to the language literacy learned at school.
Visual communication is not tied to language barriers and sometimes even globally understandable. The knowledge necessary for understanding is different, more intercultural than that for language. Nevertheless, misunderstandings in the language of imagery are not precluded. Also it is not a universal language, not self-explanatory, but limited by cultural and temporal boundaries.
Visual communication in retail is currently mostly done with photographs. Compared to photographs, videos have the disadvantage of requiring a period of attention from the viewer. Additionally for mobile users, they can be expensive because of their data volume.
"A picture says more than a thousand words" - a common cliché that is true, but is only one side of a coin; the other side is the question: what does a picture say? The answer is, that the meaning of a picture is not clear, it lies in the eye of the beholder, which is shaped by society, culture and zeitgeist. Therefore, images are normally not used to explain legal texts.
The vague message of an image may be desirable. If it is not, adding a text, that points the way to thinking helps.
Unlike texts, which are read line by line, images are not perceived linearly. They affect the viewer in an instant. The depicted objects and their relationships - the contents of the image - act simultaneously. The type of perception differs from that of texts, which are perceived more consciously than pictures. When it works, the image has a direct and emotional effect on the viewer. Whether it works, that is: it does not leave the viewer unaffected, depends on the image as well as on the observers themselves. It works when it interacts with mental images of the viewer.
US scientists at MIT say: people can spot objects in images they've seen only 13 thousandths of a second. As a result, 77 items can be detected in one second. An average reader reads 200-240 words per minute, that is at most 4 words per second. We recognize objects in images 20 times faster than their corresponding terms in texts. In a fast-paced world, it is therefore not surprising that visual information is preferred.
The New York University psychologist Jerome Bruner writes about studies, showing that people only keep 10% of what they hear, 20% of what they read, but 80% of what they see.
Visual communication can be conceived faster and is remembered longer than information that is transmitted verbally. Therefore the proportion of imagery grows compared to that of texts.
Continue to Photography.
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