Clarify the idea
Simplify the labels and highlight the relationship learners should notice.
Teaching tasks
Make the idea easier to see.
Explore a visual brief for your teaching goal, with accuracy and accessibility checks before classroom use.
Make a relationship visible.
This still frame shows a graph made in PLAI™. Use the brief and review checklist to plan the relationship learners should explore, then check the tools available in your account.
Decide what the visual must get right.
Start with the idea, not the decoration. Should learners compare quantities, follow a sequence, identify a pattern or explain a relationship? Make that purpose the centre of the brief.
Open the visual brief prompt
Help me plan a visual to explain [concept].
Ask PLAI™
Teaching visual brief
What to show accurately Objects, relationships, quantities and labels.
What to leave out Decorative detail that does not serve the idea.
Text description Meaning that does not depend on the image alone.
Keep the comparison clear.
Make the comparison clearer without changing the quantities or relationships. Remove decorative detail, check label readability and explain the idea in text as well as visually.
Refine the visual brief
Make the comparison clearer and simplify the labels.
Refinement check
Keep what matters
Accurate quantities and positions The relationships must be correct, not just plausible.
Readable labels At the size and distance pupils will see them.
Not colour-dependent Meaning is clear without colour alone.
Refine the draft for your class.
Tell PLAI™ what you want to change. Try one of these follow-ups with your draft, then check the result for your class.
Make it accessible
Describe this visual in words and make sure its meaning does not depend on colour alone.
Invite an explanation
Add a question that asks learners to explain what changes and what stays the same.
Questions before you start
What does the walkthrough show?
The image is a still frame from a recorded PLAI™ graph. The original graph allows a parameter to change; this page shows its captured output. Use general sample content as a starting point for your own visual.
What if a visual looks good but is inaccurate?
Do not use it until the error is corrected. Check the underlying concept as well as labels, quantities and layout.
How can I make a visual more accessible?
Provide a meaningful text description, use readable labels and contrast, and avoid using colour as the only way to communicate meaning. Check it in the format pupils will use.
Bring the idea you want pupils to see.
Start with a clear learning goal and the details the visual must get right.
Start with PLAI™