What is Visual Thinking Process?

This poster is my first step to decipher the Visual Thinking Process. They are originated from JAM as a concept to describe Visual Design Process.

The four steps in Visual Design Process are "Collecting elements", "Finding coherence", "Composition", and "Translation". People shift from one step to another following the flow of thinking. Visual thinkers use multiple techniques to smooth the flow of thinking in a given meeting. The flow breeds abundant benefits both in the process and final result. Please click on "read more" if you want to get more explanation.

1. What is Visual Thinking Process?

Through Visual Thinking, people can solve complex problem in the process. However, what happened in the process is something needs to be deciphered if we want to make a good use of Visual Thinking. I am going to explain the process of Visual Thinking, Visual Thinkers' techniques, and benefits of Visual Thinking in the following pictures.

2. Visual Thinking Process Creates a Flow:
In visual thinking process, there are four steps: "collecting elements", "finding coherence", "composition", and "translation". Collecting elements is when people try to explore and lay out all helpful data on the table. Finding coherence is when people start to find out linkage between data and cluster them. Composition is to figure them out in a bigger and logical scale. Translation is to transfer the result in composition with a meaningful metaphor which can motivate and inspire people in the end.

3. Underlying Flows in Visual Thinking Process:
The process is non-linear and non-rational. The underlying flows in the picture indicate that the process can shift from one loop to another. Instead of running in a linear an one-way route, it is more like cycling in each loop when people try to get more in-depth insights.

4. What do Visual Thinkers Do in the process?
Visual thinkers use multiple techniques to help the flow smooth. People can think more fluid and, instead of being pushed to next loop, slow down their thinking. People can therefore stay in a loop longer until they get enough insights.

5. Benefits of Visual Thinking:
In the process, visual thinkers' techniques help create common ground in a team, which bring benefits both in the process and the result.

The picture is an initial exploration of the power of hand drawing in facilitation workshop. I will try to make it more elaborate in the latter phase of the graduation project. Please feel free to give comments for me to improve them.