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Visual communication

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Visual communication 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.

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.

Visual communication skills include your ability to interpret body language, present information effectively, as well as your seeing and drawing skills.

Links from Communication Nation 

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Visual thinking practice 

Expressing emotion
In this exercise you'll see how drawing facial expressions can help you understand them better. You'll also enhance your observation and visual communication skills.
Bossman/geek
Can you capture the dichotomies of your corporate culture in a single picture? Sure you can!

What is your body language saying? 

Your body language conveys more than you may be aware. Whether you are happy or cranky, you broadcast your emotions by the way that you sit, stand and move. Your level of enthusiasm and participation in any group activity is easy to gauge, even from a distance.

Bored Kids - Eastern Market DETROIT by No Trams To Lime Street

Bored Kids - Eastern...

at rest by Dawn Ashley

at rest

Singlemindedness by Bleuchoi

Singlemindedness

Anticipation by Bleuchoi

Anticipation

Disingenuous ? by Bleuchoi

Disingenuous ?

Contentment by Bleuchoi

Contentment

Instructive by Bleuchoi

Instructive

Perusal by Bleuchoi

Perusal

Focused by Bleuchoi

Focused

Visual thinking practice 

Go to a public place. Take note of peoples' body language, and see if you can capture the essence of their emotion by drawing simple stick figures.

Doing this will improve your skills of observation and also fine-tune your ability to "read" the body language of others.

Visual presentations 

Research shows that when ideas are presented with pictures they have greater emotional impact and are easier to remember. When you present ideas to others, do you stimulate their visual senses?

Feargal Sharkey at Labour by robertsharp

Feargal Sharkey at L...

The notice board at Stream 08 by tziralis

The notice board at...

DIY DAYS in BOSTON - video still by arincrumley

DIY DAYS in BOSTON -...

Enterprise 2.0 by Larsz

Enterprise 2.0

Lapset ja nuoret -workshop by xmacex

Lapset ja nuoret -wo...

Isä Mitro by xmacex

Isä Mitro

Twitter being Twitter by shareski

Twitter being Twitte...

My Twitter audience by shareski

My Twitter audience

Culture Geeks by Yandle

Culture Geeks

What people are presenting right now 

Asking better questions by Scott McLeod

Asking better questi...

Global world. Local schools. by Scott McLeod

Global world. Local...

Digital, global world. Analog, local schools. by Scott McLeod

Digital, global worl...

The 21st century is here by Scott McLeod

The 21st century is...

If the leaders don't get it... by Scott McLeod

If the leaders don't...

The people in charge by Scott McLeod

The people in charge

Should teachers get to choose? by Scott McLeod

Should teachers get...

Digital world. Analog schools. by Scott McLeod

Digital world. Analo...

slave by dtcchc

slave

Links from Presentation Zen 

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Visual thinking practice 

Design a PowerPoint presentation with index cards

Next time you make a PowerPoint presentation, make a paper prototype before you create it on the computer.

1. Get a stack of index cards. On each card, write down one of the points you want to make. Each card should contain a complete thought.

2. Now on your desk or tabletop, see if you can arrange the cards into three main groups. This is a way to organize your presentation into three high-level talking points.

3. Eliminate any cards that seem unnecessary or redundant.

4. Now lay the cards out in a linear sequence and revise until you like the order and flow.

5. Now you can create the presentation in PowerPoint with confidence in the story structure.

6. See if you can get away from bullet points by finding compelling visuals to illustrate each slide.

Communication delicacies 

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Learn more about visual communication 

Understanding Body Language (Barron's Business Success Guides)

Amazon Price: $8.99 (as of 10/08/2008)

Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists

Amazon Price: $14.93 (as of 10/08/2008)

You Are the Message

Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 10/08/2008)

Visual communication links 

Learn to read and write Japanese smileys
In Japan, smileys are an art form.
Are people receiving what you're transmitting?
Chris Brogan makes some great points on the difference between message sent and message received. He also offers some good questions to ask yourself before you communicate.
The seven C's of communication design
Designing your communication is an iterative process. It begins at a high level, with good questions and good listening; and ends in details; constructing a presentation, document, system or user experience. You can improve your communication by thinking about seven "C's" of communication design: The seven C's lay out a simple sequence which can help you start broadly and work your way down to specifics.
It's time to move away from presentation mode
Let's start moving from presentations to conversations.
Lines of communication
A free map showing the lines of communication in business.
The corporate hip-hop presentation style
Dick Hardt of Sxip completely captivates his audience with great visuals, great storytelling, and great timing. His presentation has a staccato, rhythmic quality, like a kind of corporate hip-hop.
Attention = time
Attention is time, as in 'where I choose to spend my time.' This is why this concept (whether we call it 'attention' or 'time' or what have you) is fundamental.
What's your preferred communication mode?
Improve your chances of being understood.
Seven steps to better presentations
Adaptive Path's Jeff Veen on how to give an effective presentation
How to listen
If you want to be a better communicator learn to listen, and more importantly, listen to learn.
How to measure your communication effectiveness
Do you set understanding goals for your important communications? Most people don't. Here's how to do it.
How to make better presentations with story templates and storyboards
If you use PowerPoint, check out a couple of free online courses:

Story Template 101

The PowerPoint Storyboard 101
Presentation tips from Japan
Read about some innovative methods from presentation masters of Japan:

The Takahashi method

The Monta method
How to present like Steve Jobs
What makes Steve Jobs such a great presenter? It's not complicated, and, with practice, you can do the same things he does to make your presentations more effective.
Is PowerPoint good or evil?
PowerPoint. People either love it or hate it. There is no doubt that Powerpoint has had an influence on the world -- but is it a positive one or a negative one? And who decides? See what the experts say.

Next mini-course module 

Visual vocabulary
Visual language, like written and spoken language, has developed over time. Your visual vocabulary is the set of elements, or visual "words" that make visual language possible. The greater your vocabulary, the greater your capacity to think and communicate.
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dgray

About 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 rich, clear and engaging communication. He believes that pictures have the power to transform the world, because they can convey rich information to anyone, regardless of culture, language or educational background.

XPLANE's customers include some of the world's leading companies, including British Petroleum, Microsoft, Credit Suisse and Cisco. XPLANE helps them use pictures and visual thinking methods to create new opportunities and solve complex business and communication problems.

Dave regularly publishes his thoughts on communication and visual thinking at http://communicationnation.blogspot.com, and has recently published a book, Selling to the VP of NO; a visual book on sales, change management and communication.

Prior to founding XPLANE, Dave worked as a visual journalist for several major metropolitan newspapers, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, LA Daily News, LA Herald-Examiner, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He has also taught business and visual communications at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dave's formal training was in visual communication at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, USA.

His work has been recognized by Print Magazine, Forbes, the Associated Press and the Society of Newspaper Design.

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