Key Principle
Visual design and inclusive communication share the same causal logic as Smart Brevity itself: reduce cognitive load, put the reader first, strip everything else. The Axios visual standard — "elegant efficiency" — means pursuing the cleanest, sharpest, most pleasing way to display content by testing every element against the question of whether it serves the viewer. Inclusive communication is not a moral add-on; it is a prerequisite for effective communication. Any audience member lost to confusion or offense is permanently lost — not just for one piece, but as a reader. (Chapter 7, 9)
Why This Matters
Decoration and volume create visual noise — the viewer's attention scatters, key information is missed, and communication fails. Without deliberate visual hierarchy, the eye defaults to the largest or most salient element, which may be entirely superfluous. Extra elements do not just waste space; they create false hierarchy by competing for attention with what matters. This is the identical mechanism that makes verbal bloat costly — undirected attention defaults to the wrong element.
Inclusive communication failure is equally structural. Writers optimizing for a "default reader" (educated, native English speaker, culturally assimilated) systematically exclude audiences not through malice but through unexamined assumptions. The National Center for Learning Disabilities reports that 1 in 5 children have learning disabilities — roughly 65 million American adults, potentially 20% of any audience. Smart Brevity's core constraints — brevity, plain language, bullets — are equity mechanisms as much as efficiency mechanisms. Blind spots cannot be resolved through individual willpower; they require structural mitigations: diverse hiring and deliberate review processes for sensitive content.
Good Examples
The Texas Elephant Fix: An Axios illustration for "Texas Republicans Admit There's a Problem" showed an elephant holding a tiny Texas flag. The elephant's body dominated the frame; the flag — the meaningful element — was visually buried. The fix: crop the body, scale up head and flag, use negative space for balance. The flag becomes prominent, hierarchy is restored. Superfluous elements do not just waste space — they create false hierarchy by drawing attention away from the only element that carries the story's meaning. Removal was not subtraction; it was correction.
Roy's Plain Language Framework: Roy Schwartz has dyslexia. Smart Brevity's plain-language constraints emerged partly from his lived need to develop clarity systems. Three constraints map directly to specific exclusion failure modes: plain language removes barriers for non-native speakers and people with learning disabilities; bullet points prevent mixed-multi-point sentences that lose readers who cannot easily parse compound structures; short and simple sentences eliminate insider-isms that create in-group/out-group divisions. These constraints were not designed for inclusion — but their mechanism produces inclusion as a byproduct.
The Identity Swap Test: Replace one identity marker with another (race, ethnicity, nationality). If the language does not hold up under the swap, it was already biased. This is a zero-cost, portable quality check that bypasses the need for exhaustive style-guide review in the moment.
Counterpoints
False hierarchy through decoration: Adding visual elements to make a design feel richer or more complete is the visual analog of padding writing with context and caveats. Each extra element competes for attention with what matters. "Elegant efficiency" demands removal, not addition.
The "default reader" assumption: Optimizing for an educated, native-English, culturally assimilated reader without examining that assumption excludes 20% of the audience. Omitting irrelevant identity descriptors is often the most inclusive act — the Asian American Journalists Association notes that "using the descriptors when they're not relevant or without explaining their relevance perpetuates harmful stereotypes."
Complexity as a signal of effort: Just as length-equals-depth is a fallacy in writing, visual complexity is not a signal of design effort. Cluttered visuals do not just waste space — they actively misdirect attention. Good hierarchy often goes entirely unnoticed; poor hierarchy draws unwanted attention.
Key Quotes
"At Axios, we aspire to what we call 'elegant efficiency.' When we design art for our website, newsletters and marketing materials, we obsess about one thing: What's the cleanest, sharpest, most pleasing way to display it?" — VandeHei, Allen & Schwartz, Chapter 7
"Good hierarchy often goes unnoticed. Poor hierarchy draws unwanted attention." — VandeHei, Allen & Schwartz, Chapter 7
"If you're not communicating inclusively, you're not communicating effectively." — VandeHei, Allen & Schwartz, Chapter 9
"Offend me or confuse me and you've lost me. Not just for this newsletter or presentation, but for good." — VandeHei, Allen & Schwartz, Chapter 9
"Complexity confuses. Abstraction alienates. Length loses." — VandeHei, Allen & Schwartz, Chapter 9
Rules of Thumb
- Apply Sarah Grillo's three-step visual formula: start with a strong concept, edit out superfluous elements, judge from the viewer's perspective.
- Before publishing any visual, answer three diagnostic questions: Does the concept make sense with fresh eyes? Are all elements legible? How well does the layout express the content?
- Test visual hierarchy by asking whether a viewer notices the design structure — if they do, the hierarchy has already failed.
- Ask individuals how they identify; don't assume a category (e.g., confirm tribal affiliation for Indigenous Americans; confirm preferred pronouns).
- Use the Identity Swap Test: replace one identity marker with another — if the language doesn't hold up, it was already biased.
- Omit race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin when not directly relevant to the story.
- Use the Conscious Style Guide (consciousstyleguide.com) when cutting descriptors that reinforce stereotypes.
- When illustrating sensitive topics, audit photo choices for visual tropes that undermine the subject matter.
Related References
- Organizational Culture & Internal Communication - visual clarity principles apply equally to internal communication design
- Implementation Playbook - the ACH review checklist includes a HUMAN check that overlaps with inclusive voice