Visuals play a central role in the toolbox of any instructional design professional.  Richey, Klein, & Tracey (2011), citing early research by Weber (1922), show that visuals led to around 40 percent of conceptual learning.  The research on the use of visuals in instructional design theory and practice has produced two specific conclusions: 1) although the use of visuals has an overall positive influence on learning by “motivating, facilitating understanding of content, or aiding in recall” (Richey et al., 2011) and 2) the amount of influence varies depending on the instructional function of the visual.

In support of the positive effect of visuals on learning, research traditionally classifies instructional visuals according to their appearance or their function.  Some of the arguments about how to classify the different functions of instructional visuals include:

  • Pictures are realistic by making reference to real world events, analogical by portraying visual comparisons, or logical as flowcharts, maps and circuit schematics (Knowlton, 1966).
  • When combined with text, visuals have “attentional, explicative, and/or retentional roles for learning” (Duchastel, 1980).

Likewise, some pertinent research on how particular functions of instructional visuals influence learning differently include:

  • Color stimulates interest in content and has a positive effect on achievement, but realistic details often distract learners from the target goal (Baker and Dwyer, 2000).
  • Pictures have at least five functions in a text with various effects on learning (Levin, 1981). They can serve as mere decoration to make the text appealing, representational to illustrate concepts and make learning more meaningful, organizational to provide a coherent framework for the text or to highlight the various attributes or features within a concept or object (Morrison, Ross, Kalman, & Kemp, 2013, citing Levin, 1981), interpretational to help the learner comprehend complex verbal information, and transformational which provides learners with a visual anchor to recall facts.