Multiple Potential Descriptions

It can be challenging to create good descriptions, especially when you might be using an image to illustrate something that you have no words for. Sometimes it is helpful to add some descriptive text to the main narrative when you have pictures that are unclear or ambiguous.

Always try to be brief with your description, yet detailed enough to convey the essential point the picture is making.

The primary concept here is to reinforce the clarity of your message by making your descriptions detailed and relevant to the larger context of the message. Usually it is unintended to create ambiguity with images. However, for the sake of time, here is a contrived picture that can be interpreted in at least two different ways:

Source: FlowingData Duck vs. Rabbit Plot Links to an external site.

Here is another picture that illustrates the same phenomenon, but in a slightly different fashion:

Source: Wikipedia Rabbit-Duck Illusion Links to an external site.

Determine the primary points being communicated by the chart or graph, and summarize it. When possible, present the tabular data with appropriate header cells to make the information more accessible and usable.

Description for above chart: The histogram for Problem Solving range from 5 to 10, and the mean score is 8.08. The distribution is bimodal at 8 and 10.

The larger context of the information will help you determine the most effective description for a map. Always summarize the most essential points being communicated, and if the map is providing navigation information, summarize the directions necessary to follow the route indicated on the map.

 (Source: Wikipedia Sante Fe Trail)

Above: Complex map of the Santa Fe Trail