Some animals are more equal than others

George Orwell’s classic Animal Farm is a condemnation of totalitarian systems, and Stalinism in particular.

It’s a story about animals on a farm who start a revolution against humans. Because they are fed up with being oppressed.

According to their ideology, after the revolution, all animals are equal. But the pigs, who took power, turn out to be ‘more equal’ than other animals.

Animal Farm describes the dangers of a strong hierarchy in a political system. In communication, however, hierarchy has many advantages.

Hierarchy of information.

If you communicate without information hierarchy, all the elements of your communication have equal weight. Every part of your slide. Every word in your text.  

Your audience doesn’t know where to start. As a result, it will process your information in an unstructured way.

You can add hierarchy to your text with:

  • headings
  • (the first sentences of) paragraphs
  • signal words
  • wordsprinted in bold

You can create a visual hierarchy with:

  • titles and headings
  • kleur
  • grootte
  • compositie

In communication, not all creatures should be equal. If you give some of them a more important position, your audience will benefit.

Does that sound totalitarian?

Regards,

Arnaud