A study of visual literacy in technical communication textbooks: a work in progress

The design of visual elements such as illustrations, graphics, and photos is a task facing many technical communicators. Practical understanding of the principles of design is necessary for quality print design products with visual elements, but even this may not be adequate for producing illustrations that users can quickly understand in a visual manner. Pairing the principles of print and textbook design with knowledge of visual communication theory aid technical communicators as they develop illustrations that are not only well-designed visually, but easy for audiences to understand. This paper reports the emerging results of a study to determine how well technical communication textbooks support visual learning by the quality and purpose of visual elements. Basic applications of visual communication theory are also interpreted to provide a knowledge base upon which successful print and visual documents can be built.