Show what you mean
“Saying what you mean” may be a great way to build a strong friendship. It is not, however, a great way to build website navigation, or a presentation visual.
It is not that words are lame. They are wonderful, precise, meaningful. But they do not provide the immediate understanding visuals carry. Reading is a complex, fairly lengthy process. It involves a sequence of steps: seeing + pattern matching + pattern interpretation. Reading is also linear in nature. is perfect this of example a sentence fact this (This sentence is a perfect example of this fact). Finally, reading requires focus, attention. One cannot read a book, and drive in busy traffic (this kind learning cost me $2600, enjoy your savings).
Seeing, however, is simpler and quasi-immediate. immediate grasp of the metric; meaning of the metric conveyed at the same time as its value; low attention requirement to observe the figure. Watching is also more parallel, and requires less attention.
These differences are the reasons why maps are visual and not long-winded tales of all the ways to go to all the places. These are also the reasons why fighter jets, military helicopters and most civil airplanes have kept analog displays in the cockpit in the Digital Age. And these are the reasons why I really liked a nice little feature in the otherwise fairly modest North Arizona University website:
Now, millions of websites have a map link. But most still link to maps through words like “map” or all-times-favorite “directions” or the ever-so-dreadful “click here”. Some will have a picture of a map linking to the full-fledge picture map or its Google, Yahoo, or Live mashup bread. But few personalize it to the point of making the link a tidbit of the real map. Anyway, this one triggered the thought, and hence deserved the credit. So there you go. Thanks to North Arizona University 
Now, there is a limit to the power of images, and it is the meaning people put on them. If you show a knife to a cook, it is full of possibilities. It is a tool. It evokes to do’s, etc. Now, if you show the same knife to students, they may think “Scream” trilogy. So as you can see, images may be powerful ways to convey simple messages, within the confines of agreed upon context, amongst known viewers. But images are also a wonderful way to convey the wrong message, very powerfully
This is a funny and interesting topic, which we will keep for next time. In the meantime, to make a point of living by what we just told, let’s summarize our point visually:
The 3 Concentric Views: Strategic, Operational & Tactical
This series of patterns patterns for thinking and visualizing reality.
Principle of the pattern
The same reality can often be seen differently depending on the perspective you you observe it from. This is true for a landscape, a scene, as illustrated (more or less successfully) by the recent movie Vantage Point. In the movie, various characters see the same scene, the assassination of the president of the United States, from their own perspective. It is only by looking at the various perspectives of the story that the truth about what happened can be pieced together.
This is also true for a business activity or business process. A strategic outlook, an operational review, and a tactical analysis will all provide useful insights. However, combining and comparing these perspectives provides far much more insight.
although the vision will be different, each aspect will tend to affect the other two.
For instance, looking at a particular interaction or business activity on these three different time scales will likely uncover different types of activities, owners, challenges, benefits… maybe different tools are used as well.
Applications of the pattern
The 3 Concentric Views pattern is useful when trying to reconcile the views of different groups contributing to the same business process, but with different degrees of involvement and time concern. Whether the 3 Concentric Views or the Prism is more appropriate depends on the nature of the difference of perspectives. If the perspectives differ on some groups being involved with the tactics, some more concerned about the long-term . In most cases, it is well combined with the Prism pattern, which shows the various angles of process.
Example
A good example of this pattern is the Strategic, Operational, Tactical views of the Product Development Lifecycle:
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At a strategic level, Senior leadership is essentially concerned with…
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At an operational level, Middle management, both on the business and IT side, is essentially concerned about getting things clarified and done. The main concerns are the scope and the end-user validation.
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At the tactical level, the most important concern is getting things done. It includes making sure specifications are precise, accurate, understood and that the test cases are comprehensive and prioritized.
To address each of these challenges, the main players of each of these leagues will employ different tools. Their success or failures will be seen on a different horizon.
Template for your own use
You can download and reuse these templates freely. Please, keep the copyrights and links in the document, if you share them. This way, if people like these templates too, they will know where to find these documents too. Share the love
The templates exist in 2 visual forms: 3-views-in-one, and 1-view-per-page. I also saved them in 3 different file formats, so that you can use them whatever the platform and tool you may use.
The 1-view-per-page template is convenient for use in the early stage of a brainstorm session or workshop. Just print a copy of the relevant view to each participant, and let them consider their own perspective for a while.
The 3-views-in-one template is convenient for use in a the later stage of a brainstorm session or workshop. You can print a copy per participant or team, and let them consider all perspectives for a while. Or you can fill it and leave it as a give-away.
AcrobatPDF templates: 1-view-per-page. 3-views-in-one.
Powerpoint templates: 1-view-per-page. 3-views-in-one.
OpenOffice templates: 1-view-per-page. 3-views-in-one.
Getting started with visual communication
Table of contents for Visual Communication 101
- Getting started with visual communication
Written communication has captured for centuries the lion share of communication. From the memo to the sales letter, to the meeting minutes, most interactions at work are initiated, supported or summarized through words. Yet, there are things that words can hardly convey. And as subtle, coherent, comprehensive and precise words can be, they remain a slow, selective means of communication. It is slow because the reader needs to follow the arrangement of the text predetermined by the author to grasp the message in its entirety. It is selective because one needs to know the language to understand the message, and take action if need be.
At times, you may need a more immediate or accessible means of communication. Actually, these situations have always existed and have exploded over the course of the last decades. Examples include consumer electronics and furniture installation manuals, that have dramatically shrunk from dozens of pages in multiple languages to slim illustrated leaflets, or traffic signs, which in Europe are symbols that enable clear (most of the time) understanding of what one should do, despite the language diversity.
There is no doubt that visual communication is important today. Yet, we still spend very little time learning the required skills. If it takes learning ABCs then words - later further distinguished between nouns, verbs, adjectives, then forming sentences, to communicate well in written form, what does it take to communicate visually? This is what we will see in this series.
We will identify patterns for visual communication: needs, tools, audiences, situations, etc. These will provide you with a better sense of how you could communicate visually a message to an audience in a given context.
Quality > Immediacy (in communication, at least)
Early 2004, Meg Whitman, eBay’s CEO took the drastic decision to banish all wireless devices from her Monday staff headquarters meetings. She then reported some push back from the eight top executives who regular attended. But she argued that “personal interaction is much important than instantly answering emails”.
A great way to grab the attention of people
Table of contents for Getting attention
- A great way to grab the attention of people
I have been working in the new offices of nexB, in San Carlos. Their offices have a shared kitchen, managed by some really nice but unconventional people. Over time, daring ways to convey important admin messages have become a habit. The latest that caught inadvertently my eye was stuck to the fridge.
I could not resist and share it with you:
Now, obviously, you cannot always put such an intro on a slide, especially if you do not know the audience, or if you are trying to sell something, or if your position is not already establish, your credibility acknowledged. But you may find other words or expressions that attract the eye. a good way to do that is to try and catch yourself everytime you come back and check some advertisement, placard, or visual message. Then you can try them on others. These may include:
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funny situation pictures
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sweet animal pictures
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baby pictures
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words like raise, bonus, free stock options, free parking spot, etc.
What do you think? Have you ever used some similar way to make a point? What was the effect?