MCI USA Pinpoints ‘The Art of the Visual Signpost’ at AM&P360 | MCI United States | EN

“We’re used to hearing that content is king, but really audience is king.” With that bit of unconventional wisdom, Jen Smith, Vice President of Creative Strategy for MCI USA, launched into “The Art of the Visual Signpost” at AM&P360, the 2019 Annual Meeting of Association Media & Publishing (AM&P) in Washington, D.C., on June 25–26.

During the session, Smith and co-presenter Carla Kalogeridis, AM&P’s Publisher and Editorial Director, explained how visual signposts can be used “to make anything better” — especially magazines, newsletters, websites, event signage, and other projects in which the goal is to convey a lot of written information in a limited amount of space. Visual signposts combine design and strategy to create an intuitive reader experience. “It’s anything that visually communicates information that helps the reader orient themselves to the place that they are,” Smith said. “And it doesn’t have to be design. It can be words, too — literally anything you look at.”

How can you take full advantage of visual signposts? By applying user experience (UX) design, whose five core principles Smith outlined and explained, with numerous examples from creative work that MCI USA has performed for various clients:

1. Hierarchy: Visual hierarchy is the order in which we process information. It allows us to process information easily. “Hierarchy is like the ‘You are here’ on the map at the mall,” Smith said.

2. Consistency: Repeating visual styles or treatments tell us that content is related and communicates professionalism and attention to detail, building the reader’s confidence. “Consistency breeds familiarity,” Smith said, “and familiarity breeds affinity.”

3. Confirmation: Visual signposts should add clarity to content, meaning they’re not gratuitous. “The best signposts are intuitive,” Smith said, “and need no explanation.”

4. User control: Never let people get lost. “We don’t read cover to cover,” Smith said. “We flip, we skim, we start at the end and move backwards. We look for anchor pages.”

5. Accessibility: Accessibility is about more than screen readers. It’s also about how the information is presented. In other words, Smith said, “It’s not necessarily about the visual treatment, it’s also about the way content is structured.”

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