Visual Communication Design with Youtube Thumbnail Examples

This video teaches you how to create Youtube thumbnails by explaining visual communication and human attention. This visual communication course with examples can teach you the laws, rules and patterns of images used in social media.
0:00 Introduction
0:37 What are 3Ts and 10 Rules?
1:32 What is clickbait?
1:58 Why does clickbait work?
4:20 Attention and evolutionary psychology
7:27 Gender differences in image processing
10:45 Scientific studies about human attention
12:49 Color Psychology
13:41 Thumbnails of popular Youtube channels
16:49 How to create the best thumbnail?
19:02 Conclusions

Welcome to social media 101 today we will talk about why clickbait works, how to make a thumbnail and towards the end, I will show you the most ideal thumbnail humans would love to click on.

First, let me ask you this: Which one of these thumbnails do you think got the most clicks? The answer is #1 because of the close up, and the clarity of the message. The human faces and the shocking knife image are also important, but they cannot beat the saliency of the red color and the simplicity of the message.
OK, let’s get into details

What are 3Ts and 10 Rules?
Some YouTubers claim the 3Ts, namely Title, Thumbnail, Topic, are extremely important and influence the ranking more than the video itself. And for the Thumbnails, here are the 10 rules, based on the scientific studies

1- Clickbait works 2- Human faces attract attention 3- Images with Negative emotions are clicked on more 4- Photos attract more attention to compared to illustrations 5- Close-up images work better than wide-angle images 6- Red color & contrasting colors attract more attention 7- Big text is better than smaller text 8- Increased Gazing time with arrows or pointing means more clicking 9- Images that tell a Story to attract more attention 10- Images that show Motion or movement get more attention.

Let me explain why these work!!!

3- Clickbait Works!!!
Why does Clickbait work? Clickbait can be any message that creates deep curiosity or offers an exaggerated benefit, or an exaggerated threat. Questions, lists, numbers, threats, false claims, and polarizing opinions are all clickbait. Studies (1, 2 ) found the same result over and over: clickbait headlines always generate more views, but WHY??? (examples)

The first explanation is
1- The low cost of gain and the high cost of missing out. For example, if you click on this link to find out the worst carb you are eating and if it is just common knowledge, you will just lose 5 seconds, but, if it is something very practical you will benefit from it for the rest of your life.

The next reason is
2- Dopamine rush. Our brains release dopamine when we have an expectation of reward. Remember! dopamine is released not when we get the reward, but when we expect to get the reward. For example, this pet-rescue story already makes your brain release dopamine because it is an emotional topic and you expect to see various kinds of cute dogs and touching stories if you click on it.


3- Stress caused by Curiosity. Oftentimes these clickbait images mention a very specific detail that makes you think the story must be true. For example, if this story found out how some bankers are hiding something from us and don’t want us to know that secret thing, then it may be a true story. Researchers call this situation the “information gap” which means if the difference between what you know and what you want to know is big, you experience stress.

The last reason is
4- The surprise and play factor. Clicking on a stupid headline is like playing one of those scratch card games; we know that most of the boxes are empty but some boxes have a reward. So it is exciting to take the chance and see what happens next especially when you have a lot of free time.




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