What, then, are the main
ingredients of a lexivision?

Text

• The heading must awaken interest, capture attention and stimulate further
  reading.
  
• The introduction summarizes and describes what the lexivision is about.
  
• The running text (body text) provides a clear, easily understood presentation
  of the topic. The lexivision is built up around the content of this text.
  
• A subheading divides up the text block into easily viewed parts and makes it easier to find and understand text.
  
• A caption tells what the image represents. It helps us interpret the image.
  
• A caption heading stimulates us to
  read the caption.
  
• Labels (texts inside the image) single out interesting details, making it easier to understand and interpret the image.
  
• A quotation provides an opportunity to reinforce and verbally illustrate the message of the lexivision. A kind of textual illustration.
  
• Verbogram is a term that includes various freestanding text reinforcements, for example factfile boxes, tables etc.
  

Image

• Overall images literally provide the big picture.
  
• Photographs show reality, regardless of whether it is an X-ray image, a historical photo or a portrait. But they also show things we cannot perceive with the naked eye – images captured through a microscope or a telescope.
  
• Drawings explain and clarify what photos show, but are also freestanding. Here we find realistic and stylized draw-ings, figure drawings, exploded draw-ings, cross-sections and sketches etc.
  
• Maps help us orient ourselves and find where things are. They may be overall maps, detailed maps or location maps. A map may also be a statistical tool (map-graph), for example a dot density map or pin map.
  
• Charts. Columns, pies, curves and three-dimensional sections help explain statistics. By comparing different magnitudes or parts, we see the proportions.
  
• Timelines enable us to place different events in relation to each other and visually compare different time periods.
  
• Schematic drawings show how some-thing is organized or describe a process or flow.
  
• Sequences show a process. The symbols in the series create “moving” images.
  
• A speech bubble gives words an illusion of speech and can be used in all informational contexts.
  
• Pictograms and symbols reinforce communication.
  

Design

• The format determines how the material will be organized.
  
• The layout, that is, the way we organize the space, ensures that the lexivision will be easy to read. It also determines the size and relation-ships between the parts that make up he lexivision.
  
• The typography makes the texts easy to read and divides them into different categories: headings, introductions, body text and captions.
  
• Materials etc. The choice of materials on which to show information. For example a different kind of paper helps to make the information clear.
  
• Colors are used as decoration, but above all as a pedagogical tool in finding things. The same thing – the same color.
  
• Frames may help to focus attention on or underscore something important or mark objects that deviate in nature, such as a fact box, glossary etc.
  
• Tint blocks may focus attention on or may separate a text or image.
  Arrows and lines are tools for showing direction and limits, but they also help to give a page a firmer structure.

Sound

• Speech (narration text) means words conveyed by sound.
• The narration presents the content.
• Interviews reinforce and increase credibility.
• Documentary segments re-create atmosphere and give an “I was there” feeling.
• Music lightens up and fills in silence – serves as background. It dramatizes the presentation. The choice of music is often the most important ingredient.
  The type of music, choice of composer, newly written or old, vocal or instrumental, determines the mood.
  
• Sound effects provide an opportunity to reinforce a presentation.
  

Moving Pictures

• Film and video breathe life into a narrative. The filmed segment generates feelings, reports facts or documents an event. Through lighting, selection of camera angles etc., a narrative is created.
  
• Animations help explain complicated relationships and heighten interest. With the aid of a computer, for example, virtual environments can re-create history.
  
• Choreography ensures that movements reinforce and harmonize with content.
  
• Directing is crucial to make sure that all those involved do the right things and to hold together the production or performance. Directing balances different segments against each other.
  
• Editing determines the balance and pace of different segments. Editing involves coordinating the sound, text, film, animation and images.

Interactivity

• The Internet and intranets create an opportunity for dialogue and participation.
• We can create simulations and interactivity, we can find ourselves in virtual environments and we can work with the same documents, regardless of where we are. This article mainly deals with the tools we use when working with printed information. But much of the knowledge and the experience we have gained over the centuries can easily be transferred to new media.