Techniques for Visual Communication

Article no. 015

See What I Mean: The Power of both Visual Learning and Entertaining

By Pior Gabby

You probably have watched a 3D picture first popped into view and you can recall the amazing rush you felt when you saw the image with your own eyes, suddenly overcame any disbelief you’d held up until then. Visual communication can be like that, too. Visuals improve the message delivery process and quicken your ability to make connections. As Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot by just watching’’.

Likewise, you have the opportunity to be a better educator and more refined communicator when you use the strength of graphics at image presentation. We each possess separate cognitive systems for processing visual and verbal material. Our capacity for meaningful learning increases when we tap into the power of both.

Even if you have no artistic flair, you can use sketches, illustrations, photographs, symbols, graphs, and diagrams. Good images don’t just decorate; they add meaning to your message. They can make a point, connect the dots, and help people understand. And when you convey your meaning quickly, you win.

There are several approaches that improve your time to meaning and your strength to inform.

Informal Conversations 

You’ve probably chatted over lunch with a colleague when one of you pulls out a pen and begins drawing on a napkin. Then the other person says, “Yes, that’s it, and if we add…?? Together you begin conversing around the sketch, modifying as you talk. The shared visual fundamentally transforms the interaction as well as your exchange.

Whenever you want to turn an informal conversation into an ad hoc learning collaboration, seek out a napkin or pad of paper and start drawing. Create a simple diagram to represent what you want to convey. Then hand the pen over and ask your colleagues to draw all over your draft. Collectively capture what’s on your mind. Likewise if you intend to use the sketch in further projects, illustrate the idea then you can handover to the expert.

Public Materials

With so much information competing for your time and attention, everything that comes across your desk or monitor first needs to pass an unsaid barrier: “Am I going to read this? Am I going to learn anything useful? Is it going to be more valuable than the other umpteen ways I could spend my time??

Think about your own documents, Websites, blogs, social media accounts, whatever. Ask yourself if they easily convey your intended meaning and if an image might help express your message quicker. If you work for a company with a professional graphics department, seek their help. Sometimes corporate designers long for opportunities to tell a rich story with an illustration. If the field of infographics is new to them, suggest they check out the work of Xplane [2], Idiagram [3], or Clement Mok [4]. If you can’t find graphics help, consider investing in a good iconographics package such Task Force Image Gallery or those produced by Ultimate Symbols.

An alternative approach is to follow in the path of “The Big Picture. It graphically shows how the story you’re reading relates to other tidbits in the news and which of those reports are huge news or mere hot flashes.

Through a series of bubbles, each representing a related article, topic or company, your mind’s eye makes important connections.

Formal Workshops

For more learner-friendly presentations, consider dropping 90% of the written words from your overheads. To borrow a line from Seth Godin, “Why would you use words on the screen when they do just fine in your mouth??? This isn’t a cheep gimmick or a way around figuring out what you’ll say.

You can narrate a picture slide with a title or no text at all. If there are statistics and details you need to deliver, create a handout.

Think of everything you display on the screen as a roadside billboard, a message that must transfer instantly at 65 miles per hour. Engaging photographs can connect emotionally with your audience and convey your meaning through metaphors (picture this: “Building a career is like building a house.)

Cognitive research shows that people learn twice as well when words are narrated rather than when extraneous words are presented onscreen. High-quality pictures are now easily available online through designs houses and government offices like Municipals, TANAPA, EPZ, Film Board etc.

Mixed Messages

I also have a confession: I came late to the visual-learning party because I sometimes find pictures more attention-getting than meaningful, providing unnecessary visual noise and distracting me from what I try to read. Think of Websites with flashing banners, presentations with wild swooping fly-ins, or images with so many labels they take a week to digest. I encourage you to avoid all of those, instead using graphics to direct attention and guide people through what might seem overly complex if explained in text.

And one more caution: Diagrams that oversimplify a process can be just as harmful to the learning process as going without. Like optical illusions, images can play on expectations, and trick people into believing they completely understand nuance and implications because they grasp the nut in view.

What real matters?

What message you want to convey?  How do you want to convey it? Who is your target? Those are what matters as long as you are the only one who knows the answers, then you can provide the answer to the designer or producer to display.

Here the producer’s responsibility is to shape the idea, to make sure the message will be clear and understood. The Producer/Director or Designer may advice you on some additions like Models, Locations and other objects depending on the project. These projects are such as Music Videos, TV programs, Ads, Magazine cover, Event coverage, Documentaries, Films, Visual learning etc.

Not a Graphic designer, Video producer, Director, Photographer or Screenwriter that has all the ideas beside he works for many people, for many design to have your unique design. When you want to shoot a music video, an ad or design any Visual Aid it’s you who knows what you want to say about your work. You should have a specific message you want to convey, may be you already know how you want it to be and then the pro can help you putting your idea in design. You might have to argue, to discuss to get what’s the best and that’s part of the job.

Being able to finance or having an idea it’s not enough, you must know the process and how it works to come out with the best. Don’t get me wrong this doesn’t mean there are no talented experts with brilliant ideas and designs, they are to do their job and you are to choose the best and the best is that fits your goals. For example I am not a graphic or Fashion designer but when it comes to what I want I don’t choose from the list, I think of the idea and submit it for development and designing. There is a time to let expert do it but it’s you who asks what service you want, how you want it, when you want it and more?

While we all will benefit from seeing with our brains, let’s use that gray matter for good.