How visuals give clues that can inform your marketing and content

Tom Crawford from VizThink recently invited me to facilitate part of his pre-conference session, Visualization for Learning: Approaches, Tools, and Applications to Improve Effectiveness, at the Brandon Hall Innovations in Learning conference.

We asked each person to select photos in response to the question, Why did you come to the conference and this session? In small groups, they told their stories to each other. In the second round using the same question, each small group created an image together with input from each person.

These are the videos of the small group reports. Each small group used the same set of 200 images from the VisualsSpeak ImageSet. I highlighted the main points from each group below the videos.

• expansive nature of knowledge
• connected and web-like
• solve our own problems
• we will get tools
• truth shining light on things previously in shadows
• access for everyone
• stands out
• help pieces come together

• we are on a path and its all good
• learn tips to for keeping training from being boring
• inclusive of everyone
• universe to investigate
• keep it simple and on target

• taking things we are familiar with and recombining them
• origami sheets can become anything
• taking resources that we see at the conference, bringing them back and shaping them into something new
• excitement and energy form people who are here
• same building blocks, but new tools
• beating the drum to share the knowledge when we get back
• everyone putting their heads together to share knowledge

• people get together to share ideas
• discovery, people coming together
• discovery of each other
• interesting things
• path to discovery & knowledge
• learning new & interesting things
• contrast and same, create intriguing ideas
• measuring your progress

Working with the visual themes

What do you do with this kind of information? First, you can look at the visual quality of the images. Many of them are radiating forms, several groups using the exact images. So visually, radiating forms are attractive and speak to why people came to the conference.

When you look at the conference logo, all the words surrounding the brain are horizontal. They could have been arranged in a radiating pattern. It would have made the design more dynamic, and perhaps subconsciously more attractive to people who are looking for innovation.

The group participating in this workshop are particularly important to the success of a conference, since they were willing to make the investment of time and money to attend both the conference and a pre-conference workshop. Looking at the visual quality of the images these attendees selected, and repeating them in the marketing materials, could have helped to speak to them.

Working with the word themes

You can take the themes or the words people say, and build them right into your marketing descriptions. This group of people are interested in:

• bringing tools and ideas back to their organizations
• learning from each other, sharing knowledge and ideas
• making sure the learning is accessible and inclusive
• making sure the learning is on target and you can measure progress
• learning new things they can incorporate with what they know, restructuring and combining

When looking at these trends, you do need to be conscious of what the group has seen before. Like the advertising that brought them to this common event. Looking at the conference description in this case, the bolded section of the ad copy  is consistent. Perhaps that part of the message stuck?

The theme of this year’s conference is “Get your head in the clouds.”

Why clouds?

• Tag clouds, which are synonymous with Web 2.0 technologies
• Cloud computing, which refers to accessing shared computing resources
• Many original ideas come from innovators having their heads in the clouds.

We’re not inviting you to come daydream. Instead, this event will provide you with actual skills you can apply to advance learning within your organization.

You can also take this type of insight and apply it to physical space. This group wants to connect with peers. Are there conversation areas? Does the space support informal connections especially as people get tired? You need SEATING! Standing in the hall isn’t the same as being able to chat with someone at a small table.

What else do you see for patterns?

I hope this example gives you ideas for how you can use visuals to understand how people are thinking about something. In the process, they have fun and connect with each other more deeply.

Do you see anything else Brandon Hall might want to pay attention to for next year?

Who came and what they were interested in

Five groups joined me for a facilitated break-out session at VizThink 08 to explore the various aspects that make visuals speak.

The first session I facilitated was on Monday afternoon. By this time, I knew the community that came together for this event was special. The only other times I have been with so many people interested in visuals was when I worked at Penland School of Craft and attended RISD. The difference this time was this audience also shared an interest in the intersection of visuals and business.

I wanted to get a bit more information about them as a group, so I drew a quick mini-assessment on the Nomad Rolling Dry Erase Panel provided by Kinetic Energies.

The top chart column asks for people to identify the sector they work in: non-profit, education, government , or corporate. The rows ask about role: small business owner, independent consultant, individual contributor, manager, or executive. The largest number of participants were small business owners and individual contributors working in a corporate environment.

The section at the bottom asked about the topics they were most interested in. The ones that came out at top were:

• visual literacy
• visual language
• creativity and innovation
• creating visual tools

Creating Individual Images

Each table had a VisualsSpeak ImageSet containing 200 photographs. We used the framing question: What makes visuals speak? Each person selected photos and assembled them on a piece of construction paper.

We looked at the patterns in how each individual constructed their image on the page.

• Did they stay within the rectangle?
• Did the images overlap?
• Are they aligned with the edges?
• Is the background covered?

Over years of watching people go through this process, we’ve observed most people make similar images in terms of how they assemble their photographs on the page which correlates to how they think. Seeing the difference in how the images are constructed can help people understand each others perspectives.

The stories

Understanding deepens as people share the stories of what the images mean to them. Difference emerges, from what is seen in the individual images to how the images are discussed.

Working in a group

Each group then created an image together to answer: What makes visuals speak? It was up to the members of the group to determine the process they would use. Each group’s process is unique.

Creating an image with other people is different. Suddenly you have to negotiate. Or not, as the case may be. The process and conversations become as important as the product itself.

What does make visuals speak?

Here are five perspectives, along with what I heard from them. What do you think? Anything missing?

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

As part of the VizThink 08 conference, philanthropic partners were selected to take part. One of those selected was Artrain USA. For thirty seven years Artrain has brought artwork to rural communities around the country in an antique train.

“Artrain USA is America’s Hometown Art Museum. A nonprofit organization, its mission is to enrich lives and build communities through the arts. As an art museum housed in vintage rail cars and traveling via the nation’s railways, Artrain USA brings world class art exhibitions and art education programs to communities and their residents. Artrain USA delivers exceptional opportunities for learning, growth and art appreciation while encouraging the development of local cultural programs and organizations.”

Artrain visited the town I live in. I was very impressed with the quality of art, the way they had installed it in the train, and how the staff engaged us when we were visiting. So I was particularly thrilled when I discovered Artrain was the organization I would be working with for the VizThink Challenge.

A Changing Environment for the Train

With changes in the rail system, Artrain will no longer be able to be pulled around to the various places in the country. Big changes are in store as the organization shifts to delivering services on a set of high tech truck trailers.

Tom Crawford the CEO of VizThink introduced the Artrain team. Debra Polish, the executive director prepared a compelling presentation about the work of Artrain. She was joined by Annie Castellano from Switch, which is the company designing the new trucks. One of the board members, Brian Tolle also joined her to help us better understand the opportunities and challenges Artrain faces in this transition. The challenge they put forth:

• How do we visualize the power of the Artrain experience to engage individual and corporate sponsorship?

There is a 20 minute video of the presentation on the Artrain challenge on the VizThink wiki. They also have an information page where there are more specific details about the transition.

VizThink Challenge

Where do we come in? Tom Crawford challenged three of the VizThink facilitators to participate in a live session.

Session Description: Often, it’s not about the tools we use, but the process we go through to come up with visual thinking solutions. This segment is designed to show just that, and we’ve got three great people to help us with that including Jamie Nast, Christine Martell, and David Sibbet. We’re going to put these three leaders on the spot by bringing them up on stage and presenting them with a real world communications problem. They’ll have never seen it before and have no time to prepare. Their job, with your help, will be to come up with a visual thinking solution, and we’ll look at how they approach it and what they come up with. However, they won’t be in it alone. Each of the tables in the audience will work on the problem too. This segment promises to be a fascinating look into the similarities and differences between visual thinking approaches.

Jamie Nast took six people, and with her breakout session co-facilitator Susie Watson, worked on creating a mind map with Mindjet software. David Sibbet took 12 people, and worked with his facilitation team to come up with a series of graphic murals. You can see a video of the overview of our results on the wiki.

VisualsSpeak’s part

There were almost 400 people at the conference. The other sessions took around 24 people. We had the rest. There were 42 table groups in the room. We gave each group a VisualsSpeak ImageSet containing the same 200 images. They had 30 minutes to select images individually, tell each other the story of the images they selected, then come up with an image together. All in response to the question, how do we visualize the power of the Artrain experience to engage individual and corporate sponsorship?

The VisualsSpeak Data

Each group had a sheet of paper to write a summary of what their table discovered. We numbered the tables, and took photographs of each group image. Two of the tables quickly described their images in the short reporting time each group had in the big session. While the individual stories can be interesting, the real value in the data is in the collective. The patterns across the entire data set is where the deep wisdom lies.

The Data Analysis

What are we looking at? There is information in several places:

• the written reports individually
• the themes across the written reports
• the patterns of how the images are constructed
• the patterns of which images were used

We are pouring through the raw data, and there is some fascinating and insightful things we are seeing already. The next challenge will be how to translate what we are seeing into reports that will be useful to the Artrain team as they move forward. Stay tuned, more to come as the process continues.