Signals are things like titles and headings. Cues involve accentuating single words, phrases, or paragraphs. The legibility of text with letters in mixed case, i.e., with capitals only used for indicating the first letter of a sentence, a name, etc., is higher than for letters in upper case only. All upper case characters should be used only occasionally, and for the purposes of emphasis. Simple images are more effective for instruction than complex images.
Color is also useful for manipulating attention.
The authors also indicate that animation can help learners visualize dynamic processes. However, not much research has been done on the use of audio in interactive multimedia. When speech is used as the mainstream provider of information, text of the spoken words should appear on the screen. The integrative guidelines are drawn mostly from traditional visual design. They found no differences between achievement scores of subjects who used a lesson with good design principles and subjects who used a lesson with poor design principles.