VizThink: Does it have to be attractive to be effective?

VizThink is a conference being held in San Francisco January 27-29, 2008. I will be one of the facilitators. This series of posts is designed to explore the topic of visual thinking, how it is taught, and how you can learn.

The series of posts was originally inspired by Tony Karrer’s, VizThink and Visual Thinking . It evoked responses from Tom Crawford, Brent Schlenker, and Dave Gray, who are all involved in the VizThink conference.

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As a visual communication resource I often suggest Horn’s book, Visual Language. In the ongoing discussion, Tony Karrer asks:

Interestingly, Christine, Tom and Dave Gray from Xplane all point to Bob Horn’s book as a great example. I’m a bit worried if that’s the example. I’m even more worried when I went to Bob’s web site. Dave Gray has always done incredible graphics that really help me to quickly understand a topic. Bob’s web site violates a lot of what I would consider to be good design. Please, tell me that I won’t think that’s good design by the end of this crash course? I can’t imagine that anyone thinks that good design?

In the comments of this post, I assured Tony I wasn’t recommending the book for it’s beauty. And I didn’t call it out for it’s design. Its brilliance is in it’s articulation of the elements of visual language. I am no fan of clip art, which illustrates this book, yet I understand it’s use in this instance.

It also raises a deeper question.

• Is there a difference between effective visual communication and effective visual design?

What we discovered developing VisualsSpeak images

When we were developing the VisualsSpeak process, we started out by cutting out photographs from books and magazines and laminating them. We tested about 10,000 images. Watching how people responded, adjusting the process to maximize the results. We were looking to deepen communication, spark insight, and give people a method that would aid in complex strategic thinking.

At first we weren’t sure exactly what the qualities were in an image that were going to make it effective. Since we were chopping up magazines, the collection included famous photos, breathtaking photos, and the work of some of the best photographers in the world. But we started to notice that when people would select many of those photos they would say things like I just liked it, it was pretty, I just like National Geographic. Or they would describe what they thought the photographer was saying. We weren’t hearing a lot of deep insight.

In contrast, the images that were more generic evoked all sorts of deep insights. It seemed almost like the more vague or ambiguous, the better they worked. This was independent of content. We tracked those factors separately. Technically, we used professional cameras and lenses, and when we printed we used high quality offset printing and good color.

When we started photographing, we had a sense of the type of images we were looking to capture. We took about 20,000 photographs to select the 200 needed for the VisualsSpeak ImageSet. So we had lots of stacks of similar images. We didn’t always pick the ‘best’ image from a design standpoint. Or the prettiest, or the most dramatic. Some of them are almost weird. And they work really well to deepen communication, spark insight, and aid in complex strategic thinking.

From the results we are trying to achieve with our visual tools, often it is NOT the prettiest picture that yields the greatest impact. It is the quality of the insights those images inspire in our clients and how all of the images interact with each other.

What are you trying to do?

As I mentioned before, I am no fan of clip art. I appreciate good design. However, I find myself compromising more and more when my focus shifts to effective learning, effective communication, and the relationship of cost to value. There is even a joke around our office about my RISD degree being revoked.

The questions are similar to the ones I ask when I begin designing a training or an organizational intervention.

• What is the impact I am trying to achieve?
• How am I going to measure it?
• How am I going to insure it makes economic sense?

So you have to ask yourself what are you trying to accomplish with your visuals. For us it means choosing the photos that enhance communication processes the most. At times we have to consciously get out of our own way to not choose the most aesthetically pleasing images from an art point of view. You may want to choose WOW kind of visuals, because they serve your purpose. Bob Horn chose to use clip art, because it helped illustrate the points he wanted to make.

What do you think? Do you find yourself struggling to define the line between good design and effectiveness in other areas?

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I do hope you will join us at the VizThink conference. If you use the code FCCM1 you can get $100 off your registration fee. I will be writing more about learning to think visually soon.