Visual communication
Composing a slide, a poster or a report page: contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity, visual hierarchy, typography, colour and one idea per slide.
- 29 cards
- 5 topics
- Free
The outline, topic by topic
Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.
- Concepts
- Questions
- Sort and link
- Scenarios
- Understand
A few cards from the deck
Contrast principle: what is it?
Show the answer
What differs must differ clearly (size, weight, colour), otherwise the difference looks accidental.
A title barely larger than the body text does not stand out: the reader no longer knows where to start.
On a slide, the title is 20 points and the body text 18. Which principle is broken?
- Contrast: the difference is too small to be seen
- Proximity: the title is too far from the text
- Repetition: the title changes style from page to page
- Alignment: the title does not line up with the text
Show the answer
Contrast: the difference is too small to be seen
Two almost identical sizes create no hierarchy: the title must clearly stand out. Nothing in the statement mentions distance, changing style or misaligned edges.
A document is limited to … fonts at most, and hierarchy is made through size and ….
Show the answer
A document is limited to two fonts at most, and hierarchy is made through size and weight.
Too many fonts look messy, whereas size and weight are enough to tell headings, subheadings and body apart.
Repetition principle: what is it?
Show the answer
Reusing the same choices of font, colour and heading style from one end of the document to the other.
It gives the document its unity and helps the reader recognise an element's role: all level-2 headings look alike.
On an open-day poster, the title, date and venue share the same size and colour. Visitors cannot find the date. What fix?
- Large title, date in a contrasting colour, smaller venue
- Add a fourth font to finally set the date apart from the rest
- Write all the text of the poster in capitals so that it shows better
- Repeat the date at the bottom of the poster, same size as the rest
Show the answer
Large title, date in a contrasting colour, smaller venue
When everything has the same weight, nothing is seen first. Size and colour set apart what matters. An extra font or capitals everywhere hurt readability without hierarchy, and repeating identically does not change the weight.