2 Visual Inspirations about Being Different

The picture above is cited from the blog: Gapingvoid

The video is produced by XPlane. It is cited from xblog: The visual thinking weblog. It is also an introduction of a new book written by Youngme Moon.

An idea of individual visual thinking process

An idea of Individual visual thinking process has been suggested by Rober H. Mckim in the book, Experience in Visual Thinking (1972).

"The overlapping circles can be taken to represent a wide variety of interactions. Where seeing and drawing overlap, seeing facilitates drawing, while drawing invigorates seeing. Where drawing and imagining overlap, drawing stimulates and expresses imagining, while imagining provides impetus and material for drawing. Where imagining and seeing overlap, imagination directs and filters seeing, while seeing, in turn, provides raw material for imagining. The three overlapping circles symbolize the idea that visual thinking is experienced to the fullest when seeing, imagining, and drawing merge into active interplay." (Mckim, R.H. 1972. p.6)

He pictured the activities, whether they are “perceptual, inner, and graphic images”, as three kinds of visual imagery: “Seeing”, “Imaging”, and “Drawing”. The three are interacted in a fluid and dynamic way practiced as an active interplay. People keep cycling through the overlapped visual imagery until the problems are solved. And this is a nature of people when a truck driver is driving through a busy traffic, when a football coach considers a new strategy, when a lady plans what to wear, and when an architect describes a new concept to his client.

"Visual Thinking pervades all human activity, from the abstract and theoretical to the down-to-earth and everyday." (Mckim, R.H. 1972. p.6)

This idea can be compared with the one proposed by Dan Roam in the book, The back of the Napkin.

Proposal to Make an Introduction Film about JAM visual thinking

This is an initial proposal to make a film about Visual Thinking in JAM visual thinking. In the film, the essential elements of Visual Thinking in the graduation project can be showcased in the film.

This idea is inspired by the film, RSA Animate: Drive, produced by Daniel H. Pink. The way to present it as a ongoing drawing process in the video, which I think, is an efficient and influential way to express a story or an idea with Visual Thinking.

Further Interpretation About Visual Thinking Processes in Sessions

This drawing above depicts Visual Thinking processes in sessions: to reach hidden insights deep in people’s minds, come to shared visions and solutions, and finally realize the ideas in practical actions in Visual Thinking sessions. Different from the post: Does the Flow Run only on the Surface or Deep in Minds?, an extended explanation about realizing shared visions into actions is added in the drawing. This conceptual framework in the drawing can therefore be categorized in four major processes and five main stages (See the drawing below).

According to different features in Visual Thinking process, the five major processes are named: Grounding, Diving, Showing, Lifting, and Landing. The four main stages are named: Common Ground (Shared Mental Models), Personal Insights, Shared Visions, and Action.
The five major processes
1. Grounding
In a multi-disciplinary group, Visual Thinking can help to build shared understands in which people can communicate on a common ground. Visual Thinking in this process provides a common language (visual language) and works as a catalyst to create a fluid thinking flow. This process also includes the preparation before the sessions.

2. Diving
Visual Thinkers in this process dive with people to gain the personal insights. Visual Thinkers concentrate on all information they can detect in the process and help participants to gain deeper insights with instant sketches.

3. Showing
Visual Thinkers visualize the personal insights to bring it to the stage, “Shared Mental Models”, where people can really see and discuss each other’s ideas. As a result, the insights can be discussed and be built on with others’ ideas.

4. Lifting
The “Shared Mental Models” can be leveled up to the stage, “Shared vision” through the transformation in Visual Thinking, for example, to give a proper metaphor to describe a potential crisis in the market.

5. Landing
After a team forms a shared vision, the shared vision needs to be developed into a down-to-earth solution. In this process, Visual Thinkers will work with the clients closely to finalize the realistic solution. The “Landing” process can last longer after the session ends.

The four main stages
1. Common ground (Shared Mental Models)
Multi-disciplinary groups need to form shared Mental Models (Common ground) to communicate. The stage is the foundation for a group to talk and work together.

2. Personal insights
The stage, “Personal insights”, is where people’s personal ideas and thinking lie on. The drawings need to connect to people’s personal ideas. Visual thinkers have to work on detecting people’s real thinking and try to associate the different insights with each other.

3. Shared vision
“Shared Vision” is the stage where people share coherent ideas about the issues of the session. This vision is a higher level concept of the shared Mental Models, such as a shared future strategy to an issue. Shared visions in a team take more time to transform and develop in order to reach the core of issue and provide clear motivation for “Action”, compared to shared Mental Models.

4. Action
This stage, “Action”, is where people realize the shared vision in a practical plan. One of the purposes in the Visual Thinking is to eventually create new thinking with drawings which triggers people to action. However, having shared Mental Models is not enough to trigger radical or lasting actions for an organizational change. People need clear motivation with the shared vision.

Two Hand Drawing Animations

Strawberry Swing by Coldplay

MUTO by Blublu.org

Enjoy them!

What is Visaul Thinking/Graphic Facilitation?

Visual Thinkers in group sessions can distinguish from people's complex thoughts to a clear and still meaningful graphics instantly. They are just like a prism that divide the white light into several colors.

In terms of an individual, Roam D. (2008) defined visual thinking as taking advantage of our innate ability to see—both with our eyes and with our mind’s eye—in order to discover ideas that are otherwise invisible, develop those ideas quickly and intuitively, and then share those ideas with other people in a way that they simply “get”.

In the practice, there are many definitions of VT/GF published online. Here I summarized the quotes of some opinion leaders in the field: XPLANE, founded in 1993, is the most well-known and pioneering visual thinking consultancy companies in the America. Chris Pearse, co-founder of the Clarity Partnership, wrote a paper, “Putting People in Your Picture”, with profound knowledge about VT/GF in practice. Brandy Agerbeck, an experienced graphic facilitator in the America, provided valuable insights as an active visual practitioner in her career. JAM visual thinking had actively involved with the ideas to inspire people what VT/GF is and how to use it for years in the Netherlands.

To sum up their interpretations of VT/GF, Visual Thinkers/Graphic Facilitators are the visual and usually silent partners, compared to the traditional verbal facilitators (Agerbeck B., 2004). They take part in sessions and together translate people’s project into a clear and large scale image in real-time (JAM visual thinking, 2008). Visual Thinkers/Graphic Facilitators provide people an efficient means to make sense of complex issues (Pearse, C., 2007) by taking advantage of our innate abilities. People can simply get information by receiving it visually. And VT/GF in this sense is not a solution for these issues but rather a catalyst (Pearse, C., 2007) to accelerate understandings (XPLANE, 2009) in front of a large group.

Drawings reflect on Visual Thinkers’/Graphic Facilitators’ minds when they collect the general and specific senses of everyone in a given session. VT/GF is a powerful tool of recognition for everyone (Agerbeck B., 2004). These drawings can pave the way to understand each other in a complex reality and lead people to a right decision and taking actions (XPLANE, 2009).

The Gestalt laws of perceptual organization

In 1912, Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Ivo Kohler questioned sensations theory were not enough to explain the entire perceptive phenomenon (Goldstein, EB., 2001). One of the basic principles of Gestalt psychology they demonstrated is “The whole is different than the sum of its parts.” The laws of perceptual organization are a series of rules that specify how we organize small parts into wholes by vision.

"3-30-300" and "AIDA" Principles in Composing a Successful Infographic

Infographics, to me, is an important tool to build a sturdy bridge among researchers, designers, and also the stakeholders who do not share the same backgrounds knowledge with you.

Here is an example that I did in a research project on Town Watchers, or Wijkagent in Dutch. They are one kind of policemen, and their missions are mainly focused on how to prevent crime in communities instead of punishing crime like normal policemen. We presented the results of our findings in the research as an infographic.

In this infographic, we applied the "3-30-300" principle which indicates that, in first 3 seconds, readers can get immediately what this poster is about, in the following 30 seconds, they can know better by browsing through some subtitles or graphics, and, in the lasting 300 seconds, they can continue exploring the background knowledge with the detailed explanation. This idea could be demonstrated as the picture below.

We also apply the "AIDA" principle, which refers to Attraction, Interest, Desire, and Action. Attraction is to catch the attention of the reader. Interest is to appeal them with the topic or content. Desire is to make them eager to learn. Action is to ensure that the desire to learn is translated into actual learning.

In the first 3 seconds, we used the main metaphor, an elephant, to represent Town Watcher's compassionate personality and down-to-earth endeavor. We made it as a eye-catching item to attract people's attention and arouse people's interests in it. After their desire to learn more was triggered, n the following 30 seconds, readers can browsing through the various attributes around the elephant, such as a compassionate heart, a huge brain, and a back carrying responsibility. Then, in the lasting 300 seconds, they can learn more about the Town Watchers' daily life by reading the supporting articles and graphics surrounding the poster. The supporting materials ensure that the poster can be frequently revisited and stay fresh, informative, and inspiring.

However, an eye-catching drawing is not a guarantee to be a successful infographic. A well-made infographic must be coherent in these three levels. It is crucial to make sure there are enough clues and linkages among these three levels. So the reader will not be puzzled by the overwhelming data but always can find a way to go on. Only under a thorough, organized design process, the poster then can really attract people in the first sight and keep them been informed and inspired for a long time.

Some Great Infographic Examples

What is Infographic?
"Information graphics or infographics are visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics are used where complex information needs to be explained quickly and clearly, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education. They are also used extensively as tools by computer scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians to ease the process of developing and communicating conceptual information." _ (Source: Wikipedia)

Here I selected some great examples of Infographics:

(Picture above, Source: XPLANE-examples, Copyright xplane.com)

(Picture above, Source: Transparency: The Largest Bankruptcies in History)

(Picture above, Source: Inside Dylan's Brain)

(Picture above, Source: Infografía premiada en los 2Q/NAO 2007)

(Picture above, Source: What's In Your Mail?)

(Picture above, Source: Lance's Last Tour, the graphic and design was done by Michael Mode and Steve Cowden, the text is by Bonnie DeSimone and James Yu. )

More examples in 50 Great Examples of Inforgraphic, Cool Infographics, BRAVO!

3 Ways How Visualization Help Persuading in Ad

Different drawings or pictures can represent different implications to the readers. So, we can use these properties of drawings to convey "right" information to "right" readers. In his book, ‘Visual persuasion’, Paul Messaris (1997) explores how images help advertisers to bring their points across. He described the images with three properties:

1. “Iconicity”, referring to the quality of a visual representation of sharing qualities with the object it refers to, such as a scale model of an airplane.

2. “Indexicality”, referring to the quality of a visual representation of being caused by the object and serves as a physical trace pointing to the object’s existence, such as footprints on the beach which indicates the earlier activities.

3. “Indeterminacy”, meaning that visual representations can often be interpreted in various ways. For example, in cigarette commercials, the relationship between smoking and a healthy outdoor lifestyle is often implied, but not expressed straightforwardly. The images here leave space for imagination with very little detail.

40 Free Tutorials on Advanced Drawing Techniques

This is a post in the vector.tutsplus.com. This post contains "40 Free Tutorials on Advanced Drawing Techniques".

Have fun with them!

Visualizations help learning

Levin (1987) examined the learning functions of visualizations in text, examined the types of visualizations that can be used of facilitate the students’ learning. They described five categories of functions of pictures in prose, which are “decoration”, “Representation”, “Organization”, “Interpretation”, and “Transformation”.

Decoration is to make texts more attractive but irrelevant to the text. Representation is to illustrate the same story as the text. Organization is to structure coherence of aspects. Interpretation is to clarify abstract concepts. Transformation is to anchor information in the text by linking it to pictures that are easier to remember.

The picture above explains the learning effects of different types of illustrations in textbooks. This picture is a replication from an illustration in the book, "Context and Conceptualization" (Stappers et al., 2005. p. 103).

The latter categories are proved to be more beneficial to effective learning for students (See picture above). The transformation function was found to have a strong effect on learning, but it happens only when the association made by the illustrator is shared by the reader.

6 Ways of Seeing, by Dan Roam.

We see a number of things before we start to think. Actually, it all happens in a split second, and you don't even notice this.

We can see more than what we really “look at”. There are the “low-level” cognitive processes which take place when we receive numerous inputs and react to them without going through all over the complex brain. We filter out things and focus on something worth looking at because the “low-level” mental process enables us to act even before we think.

In "the Back of the Napkin", Dan Roam explained the pre-cognitive visual attributes as the six ways of seeing, in which he argued that people distinguished “who”, “what”, “how many/much”, “where” (positions of objects), and “when” (changing of positions) almost intuitively in a given scene, and defined “how” things influence each other and “why” in a later thought.

Understanding the potential of how our brains work in visual thinking paves a way to make a good use of them.

History of Visual Thinking, by Christine Valenza and Jan Adkins.

In their newly-released paper: Understanding Visual Thinking: The History and Future of Graphic Facilitation, Christine Valenza and Jan Adkins (2009) described the nowadays global economy model with a metaphor: the neuron, compared to a vertical ladder in the Middle Ages and a flat web in the industrial age. They further explained the idea that modern people deal with the complex world by near-instant communication plugging into all levels of a problem and with multiple variables . The nonlinear thinking process for human ingenuity and creativity is rather like a human’s neuron networks than a machine.

From linear and vertical ladder to a complex neuron system, people started to be aware of the voices outside a hierarchy and tried to involve expertise with no manufacturing and commercial background, such as psychology, social science and biology. The flip chart in 1950s was probably the most well-known tool for presenting ideas and recording process in a meeting. People developed the flip chart as a more elaborate VT/GF tool with knowledge of Gestalt awareness, corporate learning, group dynamics, mind maps etc. Therefore, the poster in the front of a group in a conference could record a propound view with assembled graphics, numbers, and arguments.

In 1970s, the concept of a facilitator actively leading meetings toward conflict- and problem-solving interactions emerged with the influence of David Sibbet’s large-paper approach or Michael Doyle’s flip charts recording running dialogue, augmented with large infographic images.

In 1980s, the emergence of computer networking and the internet triggered the interactive graphics to support group process. During the period, people realized that corporations were similar to human entity, subject to more complex motives, stressors, and failures. In 1990s, many business management consultants developed large-scale change methods to involve wider groups of stakeholders in the process of creating fresh decisions.

VT/GF in 21st century now takes advantages of the convenient social networking device and on-line program and still makes a good use of efficiency and accessibilities of the conventional tools, such as hand drawing skills, big poster, and markers. Visual Thinkers/Graphic Facilitators also use fresh visual language, a knowledge of group dynamics, and contemporary business and meeting process awareness.

With a thorough introduction of important publications, facilitation theory, and key figurers, this paper leads us to go through a clear context of the history of Visual Thinking. This is really valuable to understand fundamental background knowledge in Visual Thinking.

In the paper, you can find a better and detail description of the History of Graphic Facilitation with Cristine's and Jan's extraordinary insights. Enjoy it!

How the Brain Creates Meanings? -- Tom Wujec on TED Talks

Tom Wujec gave a presentation about 3 ways the brain creates meaning by vision on TED talks.

I tried to combine the 6 ways of seeing, proposed by Dan Roam in the book: the Back of the Napkin, with Tom Wujec's 3 ways here in the following summery of the presentation.

There are thirty parts of brain in relation to making visual senses. First of three major parts in the brain is called the ventral stream, which detects “who” and “what” the objects are. That's the part of the brain that is activated when you give a word to something. The second is the dorsal stream, which detects “where” and “when” in the scene. You'll create a kind of mental map of your surroundings. The third one is the limbic system where people have an emotional response to what they see. It is to say that the connections and the pattern of objects trigger the limbic system to augment memory by creating visual persistence. The process to create visual persistence can be the ways to understand “how” and ”why” attributes in the scene.

Tom Wujec also present a real case to describe how visual thinking took place in a business meeting without using power point slides in two days. For people, it is just naturally, biographically evident that visual thinking happens spontaneously even before we start to think.
Making of good use of the visual support is simply that natural for people.

What Makes Visual Thinking So Special? -- Jan's Feedback on 2nd 10-min Presentation

After 2nd 10-min presentation in JAM, I got a number of feedback from colleagues in JAM. Here is one infographic of them. Jan, an experienced visual thinker in JAM, shared his reflection on what makes visual thinking so special from other kinds of facilitation. The picture above is a visual recording of our discussion after presentation. I will do a detailed explanation for this now.

1. Multiple supporting roles in terms of "process" and "result" in a workshop:
The picture above is about what participants and visual thinkers in a workshop will focus on in terms of "process" and "result". This picture differentiate different expectations and purposes of participants and visual thinkers. In top-right fan, participants always focus more on a promising result while, in bottom-left fan, visual thinker's first task is to build a sense-making process for participants. The top-left fan indicates that participants are beneficial to sense-making in the process. Then, visual thinkers help to reach the result by building mutual sense-making in bottom-right fan.

2. Ongoing creation keeps participants always focus:
It is fun to see other people drawing. That becomes simply a positive cycle in the process. People will become more and more curious about what will happen next. They will then be more eager to contribute when they feel more involved in the co-creation.

3. Visual thinking is especially good at dealing with novel and complex problem:
Based on the picture above, we also understand that visual thinking actually is only part of the problem solving when there are many different focuses in different phases. Visual thinking is especially good for people to solve novel and complex problem. Visual thinkers catch elusive information and make them accessible as drawings. People then can always build on each other's work or opinions without losing any positive details.

4. Visual thinker's work will be a living document in the end:
Visual thinker's work will be a big picture depicting not only the result of the team, but the process of the discussion. People can always get their "AHA!" moments back on the picture. The picture can be added on all the time when there is new idea. It can evolve with time and keep living after participants leave the workshop.
5. Drawings are flexible in the levels of translation:
There are different levels of drawings used in visual thinking. A given drawing has the ability to represent something really simple and something really complex. Visual thinkers make a good use of the flexibility of drawings. In the process, they draw images and texts with open interpretation for simulating creative thinking. For the result, they choose a metaphor which contents correct and rich information deriving from participants' shared understandings.

Thanks for Jan's inspiring feedback!

"What does sustainability look like?" -- Visualizing Sustainability

"Professional Visual Facilitators Mariah Howard and Julie Gieseke bring whiteboards, pens,cameras and one question to the Maker Faire: What does sustainability look like? Here is the harvest of images they discovered from the Makers"

This is quoted from an introduction of a youtube footage: "Visualizing Sustainability".

You can learn how people improvise with simply a pen and a whiteboard to draw their ideas. Sharing is such simple and fun!! Enjoy it!

"The Back of the Napkin", by Dan Roam

This is a book about visual thinking in an everybody-can-do-it way. With a pen, a piece of napkin and your bare hand, you are already equipped enough to solve all of the problems you can image even they are as complex as a modern business problem. The drawing power has manifested itself in this book with a series of interesting and meaningful stories and, of course, a lot of illustrations.

One of the best thing I learned here is that, even though you think you can't draw, you can still use the visual thinking as a powerful problem-solving tool. As a reader, you can easily tell how complex business problems can be solved with such simple hand drawings. And there is no magic in this process. Everyone can simply follow Dan Roam's guides in the book to start their own visual thinking adventure with no burden.

In this book, another interesting thing I found is the four steps of visual thinking process, which are "Looking", "Seeing", "Imaging", and "Showing". "Looking" is like you browse through the room when you step in a party. "Seeing" is like you notice some familiar faces. "Imaging" is that you think what will happen if you go to them. "Showing" is to choose one girl you know to go to because you are most willing to do so. I think here the four steps of visual thinking process are the basic principles I am looking for. I always believed visual thinking is indeed originated from some really basic and simple principles, which are "built-in" in human beings.

Again, there is no magic. However, we need this kind of book to make us be aware of this "built-in" super power, or we just waste our natural talents.

Check out the short introduction video on youtube. Or a longer presentation given by Dan Roam about "the Back of the Napkin".

Last but not least, it is so interesting to see underlying connections (or similarities) between Dan Roam's Visual Thinking Process and Visual Design Process in JAM visual thinking. Just like the picture above, "Collecting elements" is "Looking". "Finding coherence" is "Seeing". "Composition" is "Imaging". "Translation" is "Showing". It is so evident that the visual thinking process described here really makes sense in both personal experience and real practice. This is indeed a simple, basic principle lying in our nature.

There is also a Chinese (Traditional) version: 餐巾紙的背後 available in Taiwan now.

What is "twitter"? Make you understand in 3 mins!

It is a video produced by commoncraft. They produced the video to explain something we might hear from a lot in daily life but never got a chance to look into them deep, for example, twitter, podcasting, blogs, electing a US president, and even "Zombies!". With simple drawing elements and light animation effects, they create a special visual language to explain complex things.

Like the quate from the website, "Make complex things easy to understand.", the videos made of simple elements are rather serious in the way to produce it. I believe to select a right element is already not easy, not to mention setting the flow of video frames, writing professional scripts, and a good, simple story.

I think it doesn't look as simple as it is. This reminds me that last time Dennis talked about his opinions with what the difference is between artists, drawers, and visual thinkers. Artists and drawers do their works with their inner inspirations rather than with outer stimulation. However, visual thinkers have more to deal with since they work with people probably they are not even familiar with. They have to open their senses to receive information and interpret them into a easy-to-understand picture even it results from a complex issue.

So, translating something complex into simple and storytelling work is simply not an easy task. The process demands more cautions on reflecting and experiencing the world and people surrounding you.

Giulia E La Crisi By MediaseTube

This is a video produced by Coca-Cola as their advertisement in Italy. It is in Italian, but I think you can simply understand the story of this footage. Because of the simply hand-drawing style, Coca-cola can easily sell its image as a drink which should be on the dinning table, which is probably forbidden by all mothers in every family.

Maybe it's a little bit misleading as the purpose of the advertisement is to overturn the Coca-Cola's image in most families. However, to some points, it is evident that the power of hand-drawing was represented in this promotion.

Walter, thanks for sharing the video!