Much of my job as a User Experience Director involves visualizing ideas for my clients, my teams, and myself. The conventional way to do this is to draw pictures. Break out the dry erase marker, pony up to the whiteboard, and a few minutes later some boxes and arrows take the shape of recognizable—albeit primitive—solution that gives the audience a sense of what you are thinking about. I’ll refrain from the adage that involves pictures and a thousand words.
Drawing without a surface
I spend a lot of time on conference calls where ideas are sometimes shared visually but many times—too many—we are left our imaginations to construct the scenario being described to us. The topic of conversation may not be design related and involve a business or technical topics that is clear to some of the participants, but abstract to others. It is standard fare that modern web conference software comes equipt with tools to draw out the idea but that is seldomly used. Why? Perhaps the speaker doesn’t feel they can proficiently draw? Not visualizing puts the ideas at risk of being misunderstood. It is more likely than not that each participant has a picture in their mind. Each of us brings a different point of view. We have our own experiences, our own frames of reference that we call upon to craft the story we are listening to. There is nothing wrong with that per se—in fact that is one of the ways in which we all can contribute a variety of ideas. But when a visual aid isn’t present there is also a risk of straying off track. Lose focus. Misinterpreting the intent if the narrative.
Mental model making
We are visual creatures and when we describe ideas and—to be effective—it is necessary for the audience to align, maintain focus, and engage with the context. Author Charles Duhigg describes in his book Smarter, Faster, Better “If you need to improve your focus and learn to avoid distractions, take a moment to visualize, with as much detail as possible, what you are about to do. It’s easier to know what’s ahead when there’s a well-rounded script inside your head.” He goes on to talk about how we successful communication relies on building mental models. The more we, as presenters, can inform those mental models, the clearer we will be in our communication. Building those mental models in your head require energy and a conscious practice to actively listen to the presenter. Some people are better at visualizing than others. Some can think in three dimensions, others two dimensions, while others can’t put images together at all and need it spelled out. It requires a lot of mental energy to focus on a topic, and to follow the conversation while constructing images in our minds that reference the subject matter makes it all the more challenging.As designers we must be sensitive to this in order to effectively sell our ideas.
Always be aware of your audience
When sharing ideas, whether in a presentation to a steering committee or your in-house design team, remember there will be some who will be left behind by the choices you make in telling your story. It’s a performance, treat it that way. Think about it as an member of the audience. How you would feel sitting across from yourself at the conference room table or on the other end of the conference bridge? What would you need to understand the concepts and ideas being discussed? What references would make sense to you use? How hard are you willing to actively listen to understand the point?