Words influenced by pictures
A recent research article in Cambridge Assessment’s Research Matters by Victoria Crisp and Ezekiel Sweiry suggests that a picture can ruin a thousand words (PDF, 4625K) when it comes to exam questions. The authors found that the information contained in images or diagrams can influence students’ interpretation of exam questions.
In a way, I guess this isn’t that surprising. I’ve encountered something similar in think-aloud user testing of websites, particularly in sites where the information scent is poor. In the absence of clear signposts, users look for whatever information they can extract from the interface, and this includes clues from images. Images are usually visually dominant on a page (and they’re much more interesting to look at than all that boring text!) and therefore have a potential priming effect on user’s subsequent interpretation of information.
This also has some important implications for the development of e-learning materials. It’s a common (and understandable) strategy in the production of e-learning to avoid the dreaded “wall of text” syndrome by using images wherever possible. This is often justified as a good learning strategy by reference to different learning styles and multiple intelligences. However, often these images are decorative (in the sense that, although they relate to the subject of the learning, they are essentially information-free). For a ‘visual learner’, is it possible that decorative images could actually serve to distract the learner from the main point of the learning?
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About
I'm Stuart Church, a user experience consultant with Pure Usability in Bristol, UK. Sensorydrive is my personal blog and covers user experience design, information architecture, product design, psychology, research methods, perception and pretty much anything else that takes my fancy! You can find out a bit more about me if you want...
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