Every picture tells a story… a taxonomy of visual thinking methods

Could visual thinking have clarified the Brexit debate?

Visual thinking methods can add clarity – even in the muddied waters of political debate. UK readers may well have caught the recent excruciating Brexit-inspired exchange on British TV between the author Will Self, and the Conservative politician MP Mark Francois (it can be seen on YouTube).  As I watched it, I drew a Venn diagram in my head and tried to transmit it telepathically through the airwaves to the hapless MP, who seemed incapable of understanding what the author had said. What he said was “All racists voted Leave in the Brexit referendum”; what the MP heard was “All who voted Leave are racists” (my paraphrases).

Cue much self-righteous, and massively misplaced, indignation on the part of the MP.

A good grounding in propositional logic would have benefited the MP. But, much more simply, I think my Venn diagram would have helped. My diagram of what Will Self said:

 

 

What Mark Francois heard:

 

 

I’m sure that the picture would have helped even Mark Francois understand the point that Will Self was trying to make.

Making sense of visual thinking methods

It was a classic example of a situation where words on their own seemed unable to rise above miscommunication, where a picture might have clarified beyond doubt.

I’ve spent a lot of the last couple of years thinking more about visual thinking methods, and our use of them to clarify thinking, to develop meaning, and to make other methods more effective. In doing that, I’ve been trying to find a way to describe the landscape of these methods, something visual that can capture the complete taxonomy of them. I’ve been unable to find any taxonomy at all, so have (although hardly qualified to do so) had a crack at my own.

I think it looks something like this.

 

Different types of visual thinking

What do I mean by this?

  • Explicitly visual methods start and end with the visual content. These might be methods with a formal notation, such as:
    • Mind mapping;
    • LogoVisual Thinking;
    • Concept maps;
    • Affinity diagrams (KJ method);
    • South Beach;
    • Gamestorming,

or they might be methods with a symbology designed to get us drawing, such as:

    • The Back of a Napkin suite of books and guides;
    • The glyphs of the Visual Alphabet (visit xplaner.com);
    • The work of people like Ed Emberley, Malcolm Craig, Henning Nelms
  • Implicitly visual methods are methods with high visual content, but which are not explicitly or exclusively visual. Lots of computer and process related methods are like this – they have high visual content (think of most system development methods, and methods like Lean), but the diagrams are never quite enough to solve the whole problem and to communicate its resolution. The more visual we can make these methods, the greater the chance of success and of reduced mis-communication, but there will always be a natural limit on the ability of the visuals to do everything in the method (so, part of Six Sigma will always be numerical and mathematical…..).
  • Visualisation techniques take non-visual information and make it visual. A great example is the explosion in data visualisation techniques. See David McCandless’s books on making information and knowledge beautiful, or the work of Canadian data artist Jer Thorp.

 

All of these methods and approaches are making our work, communication and interactions more visual, and hence more effective.

What do you think?

Does this way of thinking about visual methods work? If it works, is it useful? Is there a better way of thinking about visual thinking? Please leave a comment below. We will use the feedback to see if we can evolve a better way of thinking.

Logovisual have previously supplied whiteboard panels for our London office, so when we needed whiteboards for a room at our head office we got in touch. The end result looks good – many thanks.

ADRIAN SHAH-CUNDY, VOLKER WESSELLS

All looks fantastic thank you!!
The guys were a pleasure to meet and it was all so hassle free.

CHARLOTTE WALTERS, TUNGSTEN NETWORK

Commissioned Logovisual to design and install a folding wall in one of our technology rooms. Both our company and the NHS Trust were absolutely delighted with the installation a first for all.

PETER SALT, IMMERSIVE

Clear and prompt communication throughout and a very smooth installation process. Nothing was too hard. Highly recommended!

TRACEY COVE, STEVENS & COVE

Excellent, high quality product, purchased after wise advice and installed quickly by friendly installers. Perfect product for our meeting room needs.

MIA ELLIOTT, DIOCESE OF GUILDFORD

The board looks great! And I’d like to say your installers were absolutely fantastic, so friendly, organised and cleaned up.

JESS MARTIN, VAYNERMEDIA

Logovisual really understood our brief and made some great suggestions to make our designs come to life. They helped us bring a child’s game from a small tin to a life size piece of experiential, for us to take in to store at John Lewis. Everyone loved it. Thank you guys.

TAMARA SPURWAY, WILD & WOLF

As a product, they really provide a varied functionality to aid in our brainstorming and project works. These mobile whiteboards have really been an excellent investment and are immensely popular with our staff.

SEBASTIAN FRANCIS-JONES, C SPACE

The whole process from start to finish was excellent and the final product was second to none. Highly recommend Logovisual and the team and will be using them again very soon for the next project.

LYNNE BRODA, OXFORD CARTOGRAPHERS

The install was fab the guys were excellent and we all love the wall, so much in fact we are thinking of future projects including them. Once again can’t thank you enough for a great thorough service.

ZOE HARRIS, CBRE GLOBAL INVESTORS

Logovisual had as I believed to be the simplest and hassle free job on the project, install of white boards. They were in and out within 3 hours, a job well done!

THE PROJECT TEAM, OVERBURY PLC

The product itself is superbly built and easy to manoeuvre around with the attached wheels. From the office team’s communication before our event to the delivery team’s installation and pickup I found everyone to be really helpful and very professional going out of their way to meet our deadlines. I would certainly recommend logovisual.

SHAUN O’HARA, SAATCHI & SAATCHI WELLNESS

We were looking for a new “canvas” to share information and encourage joint thinking. The Thinking Wall turned out to be the perfect solution. There’s room to be expansive and for things to have real impact. The service we received right from our first enquiry, to installation (very fast, very painless) has been excellent.

STEPHEN CROWE, SCOTTISH FUNDING COUNCIL

We were pleased with the high level of customer service, our order was dealt with quickly and efficiently and we are thrilled with the finished product. The custom whiteboards that are exactly as we had envisaged them.

STEVE CROSTHWAITE, HOTSPUR PRIMARY SCHOOL

Just wanted to thank you again for your help, had a small amount of feedback from our client: Whiteboards are superb. Even better than expected!

LEE, IDEA UK DESIGN & MARKETING

The products look amazing and your team were clean, tidy and considerate.

MARTIN HASSALL-LEES, PLACES FOR PEOPLE