Introduction to visual thinking
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Visual thinking is a module in visual thinking school, a course designed to help you learn how to think and communicate better using the visual part of your brain.
Visual thinking is a way to organize your thoughts and improve your ability to think and communicate. It's a way to expand your range and capacity by going beyond the linear world of the written word, list and spreadsheet, and entering the non-linear world of complex spacial relationships, networks, maps and diagrams.
It's also about using tools -- like pen and paper, index cards and software tools -- to externalize your internal thinking processes, making them more clear, explicit and actionable.
The world is getting more complex
The information revolution has outpaced our ability to mentally keep up. There's more information at your figertips than ever before, and yet people are overwhelmed by it.
When faced with too much information we shut down.
We need to simplify
We need a way to simplify the complexity and chaos around us, so we can regain our capacity to think and create.
Images are the building blocks of thinking
We think in pictures. When you hear a word -- for example, "leaf" -- an image instantly springs into your mind. We use images like this as building blocks to construct mental images when we think.
While each of these pictures may be visually completely different, they all link in some way to your mental thought-pattern "leaf."
Visualization
Visualization is increasingly used in business and science to simplify complexity: a picture is worth a thousand words.
Here are some examples of visualization:
Begin by forgetting
Drawing is a natural process for thinking, exploring ideas and learning. Every child enjoys drawing -- but at some point in our lives we learn that drawing is the province of artists. We begin to say things like
"I'm no artist"
"I can't draw a straight line"
"I can't draw a stick figure"
This is a fallacy. You can draw, and when you were a kid you knew it. You just forgot.
It's time to remember what it was like to draw as a child -- and to rediscover the joy of exploring ideas and learning without boundaries.
It's time to forget that you don't know how to draw.
Visual thinking at play
Play isn't just for fun. It's how we learn. You can practice your visual thinking skills and have fun at the same time.
Enjoy yourself, and take some new abilities back to work with you.
Visual thinking practice
- Turning words into pictures
- Here's a Pictionary-like exercise that's fun, easy and will help you hone your visual thinking skills. You'll need a friend and a sketchbook, and you can do it nearly anywhere -- in an airport, a bar or over lunch.
Visual thinking at work
People use visual thinking tools and techniques to unravel and understand complex issues, to collaborate on projects, and sometime just to think things out.
What issues are most important to you right now? How might you visualize the issue?
Visual thinking practice
Draw a stick figure
Visual thinking links
Visual thinking resources
- Bob Horn's website at Stanford
- Thoughts from the world's foremost inventer, practitioner and promoter of global visual language.
- Ask ET
- Discussion board moderated by information design expert Edward Tufte, boasting many facsinating threads.
- Donald Norman's website
- Great collection of essays on human-centered design, from the author of The Design of Everyday Things.
Improve your visual thinking
Next mini-course
- Visual communication
- Improving your visual communication skills will make your messages more clear, concise and consistent. A picture is worth a thousand words, and the better you can get at communicating with pictures, the better you will be understood.
- Return to main menu
- Go back to the visual thinking school home page.
by dgray
Dave Gray is the founder and CEO of XPLANE, the visual thinking company. The company's vision was formed and continues to be driven by Dave's passion for... more »
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