When you’re scrolling through your social feed looking for the latest on solar and energy storage, have you noticed how some images draw you in while others feel jangled and shouty? How some images get you to stop and look when you’re scrolling, while others add to the noise?
There have been a myriad of recent posts and articles saying design matters less these days. With so much AI-generated content, authentic, messy content is what people want to see. In response to that I say, “yes, and…” Yes, it is no longer really viable to take weeks to draft the perfect social image to go with a post. And by its very nature this quick approach derails iteration after iteration, at the expense of attempts at perfection. And yet, the point of putting content out there is to build your clean energy brand. It doesn’t build your brand if people either turn or scroll away from the content, or worse, are repelled because of poor design choices.
Human brains are lazy. Brains account for 20% of a body’s daily energy use, while only making up 2% of a body’s weight. Our brains are wired to optimize this energy use, meaning they will look for shortcuts to run through thoughts more efficiently. It will form habits in repeated actions. It will group like items and shapes to become one unit. And it will prioritize processing visuals that once-upon-a-time would keep our ancestors alive.
You can take advantage of lazy brains to present your clean energy brand content in a way that gets it noticed and read.
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Simple, single takeaway
Start with identifying the SINGLE most important element for your audience to notice or take away. And yes, it should be a single – one – thing. No matter how much the team wants to highlight several key points, stand your ground and pick one.
While the world is a gordian knot of complexity, our lazy brains like simple. And that means focusing on one thing at a time. One message, one image, one video, etc. So do your clean energy brand a favor and pick one thing. This will be your anchor item and will be the key to creating a visual hierarchy.
What is a visual hierarchy?
A visual hierarchy is a deliberate organization of elements that guide your audience through your content in order of importance. Content such as a social media post for a solar inverter or above the fold on an energy storage website homepage should use a hierarchy to not only guide your audience through your content but use that hierarchy to make it easy for the viewer to decide if they’re going to keep reading. A decision that is made in a matter of milliseconds.
Where to start with a visual hierarchy
Remember that one thing you chose earlier? That will be the most prominent item in your visual hierarchy – a large headline, or central image, or video content.
Unless an element is strongly emphasized, we take in information in the following order:
1. Video
Our lazy brains prioritize movement to assess threat/safety. Is it a mountain lion coming towards us or a leaf falling from a tree branch?
2. Images of people
People are a priority for our lazy brains. Being part of a group meant the difference between life and death at one point.
3. Other images
We can take in a lot of information in a single image, making images a priority over text.
4. Icons and illustrations
While less detailed than an image, icons and illustrations will still be prioritized over text for our lazy brains.
5. Text
While text is last for our brains to process, it holds the strongest ability for nuance and detail. Text shouldn’t be discounted because it’s last in this list.
While we take in information in this order, it does not mean all five items should be used in a single piece of content. Start with a focal point – which is your one thing – and only choose other items that will directly support it without adding clutter or randomness.
How to avoid clutter and randomness
Visual weight and scale
Larger and heavier elements will direct focus, with smaller elements adding secondary or tertiary value. There should be a visible difference in size between the largest focus element and other smaller elements.
Our eye is drawn to the larger illustration of the tree first, then the leaves.
All three illustrations are the same size. None of them are prominent.
Typography hierarchy
Using size and weight to denote headlines, subheaders, and body copy allows our lazy brains to skim. If the headline captures our attention, our lazy brains will be much more likely to commit to reading the rest. Like other visual elements, there should be an immediate visible difference in size between headlines, subheaders, body copy, etc. to direct our attention.
Note: If all text is bold, then nothing is bold. Bold should be used to emphasize. If you don’t have non-bold text around the bold text for comparison, then nothing will stand out. I see all bold text on on website homepages all the time.
We are pulled in by the headline, skim the subheadlines, and easily make a decision to continue reading all of the content.
We will have to commit to reading everything, but there is nothing for our brains to “hook” onto.
Grouping and proximity
If you closely position several elements similar in shape, size, and color/content, our lazy brains will group them together as one element instead of several separate elements. We will also associate two different elements with each other if they are close in space.
Even though there are more shapes, our brains easily take these in as a single, grouped object.
The randomness of the shapes, sizes, and layout means our brains work harder to process each shape as its own item.
Color
Minimal color palettes will help reinforce grouping and visual weight. A rainbow of colors will add clutter. Remember, our lazy brains want simple. Use strong contrast to add visual weight and reinforce groupings.
A simple, strong contrast color palette lets our brains feel “calm”, making it easier to process the content.
Much like grouping, too many colors feels cluttered, and requires our brains to work harder to process each element.
Negative space
Using negative space around an element will draw attention to that element and will give our lazy brains a place in which to rest. What you don’t use in content is as important as what you do. Don’t fill up the space. Give it room to breathe.
Allowing for breathing room around an element with give it more prominence, allowing it to stand on its own.
Placing items in close proximity groups them. Use this if you don’t want an element to stand out on its own.
While design is infinitely more complex than can be encompassed in a few paragraphs, these tips will help you take advantage of our lazy brains to help your clean energy brand stand out with your content. And, if you use AI, keep these points in mind when developing graphics and videos. Your clean energy content will be better for it.