Writing with Pictures
Often words can only say so much before becoming too much. Visuals, on the other hand, can say so much with so little.
This blog post is part of the Trailhead content creator series. Follow The Trailblazer publication to read the entire series.
It’s easy to forget — especially when working in documentation — that not everyone learns the same way. Some people love to read, going so far as to print out all 380 pages of our release notes three times a year. Others Ctrl-F to read as little as possible about only the features they use. And then some people — as silly as it is to say with text — hate to read!
Visual learners learn best through imagery.
To explain with text alone just isn’t enough. At Salesforce, we understand the importance of hiring people who are passionate about conveying ideas with pictures.
Visuals are intrinsically simple. The idiom, a picture is worth a thousand words sums up our approach to creating visual aids for our trails, help topics, blog posts, newsletters, and more.
Oftentimes, graphics can be a great way to break up large blocks of text.
In keeping with the Trailhead theme, you can think of them as rest stops. Graphics can provide little pauses or examples that put a quick smile on a reader’s face so they are encouraged to keep reading. Other times, they can explain a feature or process more quickly and clearly than text. This could be a flowchart, screenshot, cartoon, or even an animated GIF.
Which brings us to another type of learner: the temporal learner. These people learn best by seeing how a process or action happens across time. So for those temporal learners who find reading to be a chore or don’t understand how a flowchart or user interface functions, there is the Wonderful World of Animation.
Using inline, embedded GIFs to break up content, we can show the process of how something works across time as it’s happening, usually in just 5- to 10-second bursts.
And for those who have difficulty understanding how information or data flows through a process, or can’t determine where to locate something in a UI, animation can solve that problem. But look out: The continuous looping can drive some people nuts!
In short, there’s no one way to educate your customers. But one of the best things you can do is mimic the Trailhead method and present content in as many formats and mediums as possible to help as many of your customers as possible.
Spencer has been with Salesforce 2 1/2 years, conjuring up visual and immersive ways to explain to our customers how the amazing Salesforce features work.
Interested in learning more? Come to our session at Dreamforce and learn how to write the Trailhead way.
How to Write the Trailhead Way
- Tuesday, October 4; 2:30–2:50pm PT
- Moscone West, Admin Meadow Theater
Can’t make it in-person? The session won’t be streamed, but we’ll be posting the materials afterward on the Success Community in the Trailhead group.
