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Welcome to my shiny new blog! I’m really excited about having a lovely looking platform to write and share some articles about invisible communication and my book.
I think out of all the Five Simple Steps books that have been announced, mine is probably the biggest enigma and so I’m pleased to be able to explain some of the ideas and concepts behind it here on this blog.
I’m just going to introduce the subject in this post and then talk in more detail in future posts about how the book came about and explain some of the topics within it.
Communicating invisibly.
We live in a media saturated world and we are receivers of signs, codes and stories all the time. You only have to consider the media you are exposed to in an average day to get a sense of how significantly our lives are dominated by the media. Billboards and the radio on our commutes, websites in work, TV in the evening, adverts, magazines, newspapers, branding on cars, bags, in shops and so the list goes on.
This continuous exposure to the media, stories, brands and language means that as consumers and audiences we have become sponges, soaking up all these messages and codes to the point of saturation that now we can receive them, process, them, digest them and analyse them without really noticing it, or consciously acknowledging it. For example, we know that the colour red can represent romance or danger depending on the context but this is because we have learnt this association over time and our culture and the media have continually reinforced it.
That is the key; we are so adept at recognising codes and conventions within texts, both online and offline, so messages can be communicated quickly and efficiently without the need to state everything literally. One of my favourite examples of this is colour. A single shade can evoke emotions in people, give orders (think of road signs) and have meaningful connotations that are culturally, politically and socially variable.
Other examples and methods of invisible communication are body language, icons and symbols, tone of voice, colour, brands and typography. It is particularly relevant to the web because users have to be engaged with quickly, communicated to efficiently and led on the right path with a clear goal in sight.
Giving considered thought to the colours you use, tone of voice you adopt, icons you include and language you choose will all create a story that tells more than its literal parts.
Storytelling on the web
Storytelling is the process that binds all communication methods and tools together. Elements of websites can invisibly communicate by themselves but when combined they tell the complete story.
And then on top of all of this there are cultural, political and religious variations in the messages communicated. Phew!
So that’s the topic, not quite in a nutshell, but hopefully explained a little further than the book synopsis and future articles will break it down even further over the coming months.