How can you design messages with visuals and multimedia?

1 Understand your purpose and audience

Before you start designing your message, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and who you are talking to. What is the main goal of your message? What is the key message you want to convey? Who is your target audience and what are their needs, preferences, and expectations? How will they access and interact with your message? Answering these questions will help you define the scope, tone, and format of your message.

2 Choose the right visuals and multimedia

Visuals and multimedia can include images, icons, graphs, charts, diagrams, maps, videos, animations, audio, and interactive elements. Depending on your purpose and audience, you need to select the most appropriate and relevant visuals and multimedia that support and enhance your message. Avoid using visuals and multimedia that are irrelevant, distracting, confusing, or misleading. Also, consider the quality, size, and accessibility of your visuals and multimedia. Make sure they are clear, consistent, and compatible with different devices and platforms.

3 Apply message design principles

Message design principles are guidelines that enable you to organize and present your message in a way that is easily understandable and memorable. To achieve this, you should consider using contrast, alignment, repetition, proximity, balance, and white space. Contrast involves the use of different colors, shapes, sizes, fonts, or styles to emphasize important elements and create visual interest. Alignment helps to create a sense of order and coherence. Repetition of certain elements can be used to create consistency and recognition. Proximity involves grouping related elements together to form a sense of connection and hierarchy. Balance is about distributing your elements evenly to create a sense of harmony and stability. Finally, white space provides clarity and focus by leaving some empty space around your elements.

4 Use text and visuals strategically

Text and visuals should be used together to create a cohesive and engaging message. However, it is important to maintain an appropriate balance between text and visuals, as too much or too little of either can leave your message confusing or dull. To use text and visuals strategically, consider providing context, explanation, or instruction with text, while utilizing visuals and multimedia to illustrate, emphasize, or simplify the text. Additionally, use headings, subheadings, captions, labels, or callouts to organize and emphasize the text and visuals. Utilize fonts, colors, and styles that match the message and brand identity. Finally, ensure short sentences, paragraphs, and bullet points are used to make your text easy to read and scan.

5 Test and revise your message

Before you publish or share your message, it’s important to test and revise it to make sure it meets your purpose and audience's needs. Ask yourself or others questions such as if the message is clear, relevant, and accurate; engaging, persuasive, and memorable; consistent, coherent, and logical; visually appealing, accessible, and user-friendly; and appropriate, respectful, and ethical. Once you have the feedback and results of your testing, you can revise your message to improve its quality and effectiveness.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?