Information Recall
In the last post Information Overload we discussed how we have created a world of complex information.
And then question, “Why is this information not making sense”
then wonder, “Why people don’t understand us”
and ponder, “How to communicate effectively all this information”
I believe the answer to these questions all point at one factor: PowerPoint Presentation @Slideshare
And it is here that I want to take us back to where it all began – when visuals were used to communicate information in the form of stories.
Visuals was not just used in the time when mankind lived in caves. Why Leonardo-da-Vinci (1452-1519) used them to express his ideas and explain things. His sketches are some of the wonders – and I am not talking about ‘Monolisa’.
“No one could hope to convey so much true knowledge without an immense, tedious and confused length of writing and time, except through this very short way of drawing from different aspects” – Leonardo-da-Vinci
And most of the well-known scientists and statesmen used visuals to express their ideas, discuss theories and explain their discoveries and inventions to people – Karl Pearson (Statistician), Lyon Arthur Steen (Mathematics), Michael Faraday, James Maxwell, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Henri Poincare, Alexander Bell, William Yeats, William Blake, Winston Churchill, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan are some of the ones who have left behind quite a lot of sketches as evidence of their tendency to use visuals to communicate better.
Today we are at a time where we are bombarded with not just verbal information but also a whole lot of images – both movable and constant. We live in a world of photographs and videos and the growing expanse of the web, the expanding bandwidth, the multi-functionality of mobile phones are all creating a lot of user generated information. While this does gladden my heart, it also makes me sad at the dual nature of our communication. For we have pushed ‘visuals’ to the realm of entertainment and maybe allow it a little front when it comes to adding that little decoration. The very minds that open with praise at a Hollywood production or any movie is reluctant to use the learning and methodology in other streams – be it business, technology, politics, financial, legal, and especially education. One area that visuals could invade and hold sway is in the world of advertisements – but there is more to visuals than just these.
“Other than being different and having an ‘older’ aspect, is Visual right for me?” – if this is your question, then the answer is “Of-course”
You see, we belong to the category called primates and this group of God’s creation have been created to process the world visually! The optical nerve has more than 1 million (1000000) nerve fibers while our auditory nerve has only 32000 nerve fibers. If we consider the VAK theory of learning, our learning through oral-verbal-audio language is 25%, our learning through visual-space language is 70% and our learning through kinesthetic is 5%.
“Images are a natural interface for communication” – Adel-Al-Saleh
Look at the babies, toddlers, preschoolers – they all learn visually! Every book produced in that category uses a lot of visuals and interactivity – Why? Simply because that is the natural way of learning! But the sad part is once we help them learn the basics of verbal language (alphabets, numerals and their rules) we wean them out of visual learning and even out of creativity. We even create in them the understanding that ‘being learned’ means a mastery of the verbal language (reading, writing, speaking, counting, memorizing and accounting). A child is graded on his/her ability to master the same through rote. Science, Economics, Mathematics, Arts and literature become facts – which we need to memorize – and then your capacity to store such facts and recollect them is tested. The better your capacity to recollect these facts results in a higher grade and grants you a better standing in society. Einstein for example, could not master this and he ran away from school saying, “No to rote-learning”. Fortunately he could find an institution in Switzerland which believed in using visuals to produce creativity. By wrongly pushing aside the visual learning capacity of our nature, we are depriving our brain of its creativity and doing things the right way! Oh! By the way, the essence of science is making discoveries about patterns in nature through seeing patterns in complex information. And mathematics is the science of patterns (Lynn Arthur Steen)
Howard Gardner says, “Those who naturally gravitate towards a visual approach have often seemed to be in the minority – although they seemed to be part of an especially creative and productive minority”
Isn’t language (the written one with alphabets and numerals) visual?
Not really. By visuals we refer to images, symbols, colors and shapes. The human eye can capture these in a fraction of a second. Remember the ads, remember the photo, remember the movie clip – you do, isn’t it? And that is because they incorporate visual elements.
“Your eyes will send ideas directly to your brain. And this will happen without the distraction of translating what your eyes see into words”
But now a new stream is emerging called as Visual Language. It incorporates images, shapes, symbols, metaphors, ideas and verbal – giving it a wholesome meaning.
By using visual language, one can easily address all three areas of the VAK model of learning (Visual, auditory and kinesthetic) and helps a person to recollect almost 90% of what was seen. And that nearly solves the problem of information-recall. A continuous experience using visual language to learn, think, share, dialogue and produce information will not only enhance one’s creativity but also produce knowledge which could be recalled with ease.
“A picture is worth a 1000 words
A picture with text 10000 words
A picture with text and audio – 1000000 words” – Philippe Kahn
The good news is, slowly Visuals are finding their place in the society, especially in the forbidden realm till now ruled by verbal alone.
The New York stock exchange found they were drowning in lots of data and they needed ways of making sense of it. And they found the power of visuals to clarify the huge complex information. Nowadays they handle complex financial data visually and the benefits of the change are huge. It is said they can track trends, quickly identify any rogue traders, make predictions, analyze various parameters and present needed facts to different audiences.
Some businesses have realized the value, visuals provide and are using it to capture their ideas, plans and conversations and work in collaboration to find solutions. For it is said, that the one who can see the problem clearly is the one most likely to solve it (Dan Roam)
Many visual thinkers from western world have started this change process and slowly it is finding its way in almost all categories of this world – including education.
What are the broad categories of visuals?
- Sketching or Doodling – aids in capture of information and enhances comprehension
- Images or Photographs – powerful real-life visuals; when used relevantly – speak a story of its own
- Moving images or videos – these can explain and give you the wholesome learning
- Information mapping – mind-mapping with visual patterns and processes
- Computer Visualizations – software that uses data to produce maps, illustrations, infographics etc which aid in understanding complex data
What are some of the uses of visuals?
It is used in
- Organizing information according to categories
- Discovering patterns and processes
- Digging out core messages
- Mind-mapping of thoughts and plans
- Explaining complex stuff with clarity and relevance
- Presenting information meaningfully and beautifully
- Predicting along a timeline
- Finding solutions to problems
- Retrieving information by visual recollection
The very word ‘information’ itself is derived from the English ‘enforme’ which has its roots in the French ‘enformer’ which was formed out of the Latin ‘informare’ which simply means, “Give form or shape to an idea”. And what better way to do that, than using visual language!
Visuals are here to stay. They can make a big difference in the way you handle information. To do really creative work, you need to go back to visual approaches once again – So think visually using visual methods and technology.
Ashley Chris Vinil
Bibliography
Information Overload – Guus Pijpers – John Wiley & Sons
Visualization for Information Retrieval – Jin Zhang – Springer
Envisioning Information – Edward Tufte – Graphics Press
Going Visual – Alexis Gerard & Bob Goldstein – John Wiley & Sons
Thinking like Einstein – Thomas West – Prometheus books
Visual Language – Robert Horn – Macro VU
