Immediate costs and rewards loom larger than future ones.
More quotesThe wound-care cartoons succeeded because patients later had to reproduce an action. Orientation, sequence and movement were visible, so recall did not depend on converting prose into hand position from scratch. The picture carried part of the task.
This sounds obvious until “make it more visual” produces a smiling stranger beside an unchanged paragraph. Decoration occupies space. Explanation changes what can be reconstructed: which part turns, where information moves, what correct positioning looks like, which control is safe. Words remain better for quantities, exceptions and reasons that an image might distort. A sequence may need both: the drawing for position, the sentence for duration, the warning for the exception that cannot be shown safely. The forms are colleagues, not contestants.
Vividness has no morals. An elegant diagram can make a false relationship unusually memorable. A literal illustration can imply a sequence that does not exist. A cheerful icon beside a warning may even soften the risk it was meant to clarify. The question is therefore functional: after the page has gone, what specific understanding should remain? In the study, patients could demonstrate the prescribed technique three days later. That is a harsher and more useful standard than whether the artwork made the document feel friendly.
A visual with no piece of understanding to carry is decoration. Sometimes decoration is delightful. Pretending it is explanation merely allows the actual instruction to remain dreadful in colour.