Visualization is an important part of creating e-learning content. So would it help to know more about visual thinking? That question was the main reason to join an evening organized by VizThink in Amsterdam. About 30 people came together with only one thing in common: a feeling that visual thinking is fun and important. Split up in small groups we attacked the concept of visual thinking. What is it? What is the benefit? Why not? Etc.

Not surprisingly each group came up with a different view. Points of interest that I recall are:

  • A visualization can be a product or a process.
  • Visual thinking is not about visual thinking.

Product versus process
If the emphasis is on the product, than the result has to be eye catching, for example when supporting a selling pitch. The “the making of” in that case is of no importance. Visualization as a process can be important as a thinking tool. By creating the visualization step by step you can gain insight in a complex situation. Once the insight is gained the visualization can be discarded. It’s what a teacher does when drawing on a blackboard.

In e-learning we often use a visualization as a product. We put some effort in it to make it good looking. This evening made me think: “Perhaps it is better not to put the energy in beautification, but to put it in an interactive design that let the learners create the visualization themselves. “

Visual thinking versus visual thinking
I see myself as a visual thinker, but when I ask myself “What is visual thinking?” I am actually not thinking visually. To be honest I wouldn’t know how to think that question visually.
When you read a good novel then after a few seconds you are in it. Your imagination is triggered by words only. So you don’t need a visualization to think visual.

Why flock together as visual thinkers then? It’s not because we are some weird people that think visually while others don’t. It’s because we are so crazy about communicating visually.
It’s that urgent feeling that you want to express something, explain something in pictures, instead of words, that makes you a “visual thinker”.

Can you imagine the shear silence of 30 humans communicating visually? Ha!