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.

Workshop "Dare to Dream Together!"

Last Friday, I joined a New Book Release event in a harbor restaurant in Amsterdam. There were several presentations present by co-authors and one "Dare to Dream Together" workshop. In the workshop, JAMmers helped the participants to draw a business with their own hands. For most of them, it was the first time to do some small hand drawings themselves (probably it's just too old to remember). Neverthaless they relly liked it and were so involved in this process...

It is a great experience to see the participants to be fully engaged in the process. You can check their works and smiles in the on-line album. This workshop started with a presentation to describe how the drawings in the book were created and how Visual Design Process worked in JAM. Then in warm-up session, participants followed guidance with JAMmers to draw small objects, such as a car, a tree, a building, a starman, and etc. JAMmers went on asking them to draw each others' business model and suggested them to use the objects they just drew in the warm-up.

Amazingly, all of them were immediately engaged in the process to discuss and to draw. They really used the objects in the warm-up and created the model in their style even though most of them were not trained drawer. They seemed really enjoyed!!

I think one of the reason is that the warm-up session indeed paid off because the objects they drew were fully useful in the following drawing session. They therefore can be more confident to draw. Another reason could be that participants can simply follow a basic model (business model) instead of coming up with a new one. So with the basic structure, they can focus more on the parts they choose and the linkages between parts.

One of the participants thought it's a good way to communicate because the hand drawing is more open to interpret. Then people would not jump into the conclusion so quickly. Applying this drawing in a given discussion can offer people chances to explore new solutions. And he also wanted to use the drawing next week in his company.

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!

Portraits of supervisors drawn before Plenary Meeting 1

Not a final version... keep updating.

What I wanna know in Analysis phase? - draft!

Here are some verbs which I think their meanings and roles are relevant to find out in Visual Thinking. I wish I can phrase them during the process of Analysis phase:

Mental Models, Shared understanding, Misunderstanding, Graphic facilitation, Problem solving, Decision making, Teamwork, Curiosity, Supporting, Leading, story-telling, Sketchnoting, ...

I will keep updating them when I get new inspirations during the Analysis phase.

The Story of Stuff

"The Story of Stuff" is telling a story about modern products' life cycles in a very different viewpoint from typical description in textbooks.

I think this is a good example to demonstrate how complex ideas or theory can be shown in a simple and fun way by the help of meaningful and organized drawings but not to have to be sophisticated ones. This is also the value lying in the power of hand drawings.

I really appreciate their efforts to promote the values of no over-consumption and admire their works in visualizing the story which make it simple and easy to understand, and easy to spread out.

The company, Free Range Studios, which produced the film, shared an interesting idea with the expectations in Visual Thinking. Their idea is "While other creative agencies work to sell products, we work to sell ideas that build a more just and sustainable world. We're driven by a belief that the right stories told in revolutionary ways can transform society. Let us help you tell yours."

Yes! Visual thinking can help to tell the right story told in revolutionary ways to draw people into the picture and bring them deep into the concepts and ideas immediately with the power of hand drawings.

Here is also a version of 10 languages translation, including Dutch, English and Traditional Chinese. Enjoy it!

A Talk with Guido.

Last Friday, I had a nice company on the train back to Delft. Guido Kuip is an illustrator, industrial designer, and visual communicator. He has worked in JAM visual thinking for several months as a part-time job. It was quiet pleasing to share his experience in JAM as a visual communicator. Here I took some notes on the picture. You can see a detailed description in the article.

In his experience in the visual thinking/graphic facilitation workshop, he thinks that:
1. Demanding and energy-consuming:
The work as visual communicators (thinkers) is demanding and energy-consuming. They have to extremely focus on observing people's talking and behavior, interpreting, and translating them into visuals.

2. Excellent drawing skills DON'T guarantee a good visual communicator:
Good drawing skills can make a picture attractive and clear, but it is just part of qualities of a good visual thinker. The picture should be also informative or intensive (Thanks for Wouter's suggestion. It was from a quote in Scoot McCloud's book.). That means a good visual thinker should be open to observe and reflect on participants' opinions.

3. Experience DOES matter in facilitation workshops:
Experienced visual thinkers can interpret, and pick up a "right" thing in a complex group discussion, and furthmore translate it in a "simple" and "understandable" metaphor.

4. Crappy drawing within context V.S. Beautiful drawing without context:
A crappy drawing could be very meaningful since it is right in the discussion. However, a beautiful drawing done after workshops could be meaningless since it loses the links to the context.

5. Visual thinkers are always out-going and open-minded:
Sometimes, people could be very passive because of reserved personalities or being unfamiliar with each other. In this case, visual thinkers have to intervene and try to help them break the ice. So the visual thinkers can not always be passive in the workshops.

Renewed Graduation Subject Description

I tried to reflect deep on what has triggered me to do this project and then what will be my expectations (or my dream) for it. (see My 10-min in JAM!) Then, according to the new insights and a "tangible" goal, I changed the Graduation Subject Description a lot. Hopefully, it could be a better and less abstract ground for the GP description.

Introduction
In a gradually “globalizing” world, people have less time to communicate but have to deal with more issues in rather diverse groups, i.e. cultural difference, and professional backgrounds, etc. It is so relevant to help people to cross the barriers of misunderstandings and reach a common ground in a complex and changeable reality.

Hand drawings stand out in this domain because of its unique qualities which represents the values of imagination, naivety, creativity, freedom and error-tolerated. People can speak out-loud and to use their imagination freely without being afraid of offending others or embarrassing themselves.

For the last five years, JAM have used their drawing techniques to help people deal with complex issue within public organizations, private sectors and personal projects. In a given assignment, JAM help their clients build up shared understandings in a one-day or multi-day workshop for new ideas, solutions or visions, depending on types of assignments. In JAM, they already accumulated abundant experience in their practice and are eager to contribute their knowledge in visual thinking/graphic facilitation (VT/GF) to a promising future.

Problem definition
Due to a busy schedule and demanding daily work in JAM, people in JAM have less time to share their knowledge at work. So, what happened in the process of workshops is like a black box, which is never deciphered in a thorough research.

The research will focus on the people in JAM, their experience at work, their techniques, their limitations and expectations regarding to the VT/GF. Based on a thorough research, we can unveil the magic of the drawing power, which leads to unlimited creativity and free communication in diverse group.

Furthermore, the results of the research will also be beneficial to the world by giving a certain platform to document JAM’s works and inform benefits of the VT/GF. This platform can be, on one hand, an encyclopedia for people to explore the beauty of the drawing power in VT/GF. On the other hand, it could update with time by receiving others’ opinions.

Assignment
Decipher the “Magic” of drawing power in visual thinking/graphic facilitation, and share its benefits to the world.

Approach
1. Conduct an Analysis research on literature research and real world practice:
In the literature research, the following questions will need to be answered:
- How are creative facilitation applied in complex problem-solving? What is the purpose of using hand drawings in VT/GF? (VT/GF theories)
- What are the relationships between team mental model and team performance? How does a diverse group get shared understanding? (Shared understandings)
- How effective or in-effective are the facilitation methodology based on reviews of the outcomes? (Review of outcomes of empirical VT/GF cases )
- How should a contextmapping research be conducted in JAM? (Contexmapping theory)
In the real world practice, there would be two aspects to explore:
- In JAM’s previous projects study, the outcomes of works will be sorted and examined.
- In universal trends study, the trends of visual thinking/graphic facilitation will be looked into in websites, companies, conferences, and personal blogs.
The results of Analysis phase will form the theoretical framework for the Contextmapping phase. A research protocol will be formulated, and it will consist of research questions, theoretical framework, and methodology for contextmapping phase.

2. Conduct a Contextmapping research in JAM:
By using the theoretical framework as a fundamental, the Contextmapping research will focus on mapping the context of the real practice in JAM in VT/GF. The research will be conducted in two aspects; internal and external research. The internal research will focus on the overall graphic facilitation experience of people in JAM. In the external research, several case studies will be done and researcher will ask for opinions of their clients and experience of their partners. The results will form a model to describe VT/GF process and suggest improvement in JAM’s real practice.

3. Conceptualization and Evaluation:
This phase will mainly focus on conceptualizing a possible solution to inform the findings of the Analysis phase and Contextmapping phase. The concepts will be tested and evaluated regarding to their performance to inform and potential to evolve with time.

Results/Deliverables
• An analysis report with focuses on literature research and real world practice.
• A contextmapping report including results in contextmapping phase.
• A JAM’s VT/GF model describing VT/GF process and suggesting improvement in JAM’s real practice.
• A concept to inform benefits of drawing power reporting development of the project and receiving comments. The concept could be a platform which is a website, a booklet, a lecture, or an exhibition.
• A final thesis, an informative poster, and an oral presentation

My 10-min in JAM!

On May 29th, I gave a 10-min presentation to JAMers about what triggered me to do this project, what I am going to do, and what I dream to do.
It's not that easy for me, and I would not say I am satisfied with my performance. It could be far more better. However, thanks to JAMers' kindness and generousness. They behaved less critical than I expected and gave me very constructive ideas. Then here are the presentation ...

There are four major elements in the presentation, which are 2 surprises, 1 question mark, and a dream. They formed the story why I am here in JAM doing my graduation project.

The first surprise will have to trace back to six months ago. I was in Venice to visit the Biennale Architecture exhibition. In the Japanese pavilion, It was a strong impact to me about the drawing power. When I stepped into the pavilion, it just looked like a new house with no furniture but only big, white walls. However, when I walked closer to the walls, I was surprised by the extremely detailed and delicate pencil drawings which covered all over the walls. To me, the drawings are calm but passionate, and quiet but powerful. They are naive but free all minds in the pavilion with their imagination. This was the first time I experienced such a direct and overwhelming power of hand drawings. (more about Japanese pavilion...)

About two weeks later, there were the second surprise waiting in the TUDelft IOB job market. That was where I met Dennis and had a very good impression of what JAM are doing. It surprised me that they conducted a business to help people communicate with their drawings. This impression just reminded me of the impact I had in the Japanese pavilion. This surprise gave me the idea to conduct a graduation project with them to know better of the drawing power and how to use it.

Fortunately, after several months, I am here in JAM now. However, the JAM are like a puzzle for me to decipher and read. But I do want to talk about my dream first instead of describing how to reach it. Since I can realize there are values of hand drawings through the research, I hope that I can make something to promote advantages of visual thinking in group communication. On the one hand, they could be an encyclopedia for people to explore the beauty of the drawing power in visual thinking. On the other hand, if it is set as an online website, it could not only influence other people but also receive suggestions and opinions. In this two-way interaction, it could therefore evolve themselves with time and prevent to be limited in certain presumption.

For the question mark, this is about how will I conduct the project in JAM. I think I will use another 10 mins to decribe them, but it would be in the next 10-min presentation. See you then...

Thanks to Dennis, he also filmed the presentation. You can see the video here.