Do The Model Mash: Frankenstein Visuals for On-Demand Insights

The purpose of science is not to analyze or describe but to make useful models of the world. A model is useful if it allows us to get use out of it.
Edward de Bono

Design researchers and strategists spend a lot of time with models. A lot of time. What kind of models? Mental models, cultural models, concept maps, affinity diagrams, customer journey maps, Blue Ocean canvases and grids, business model canvases, system maps, flow diagrams, 2x2 matrices. Wherever there is a known pattern to exploit, there is probably a visual model of some kind to capture and articulate it.

But there is an implicit risk of constraining our imaginations to the known models of the moment when we should be looking for entirely new relationships and patterns. I think there’s a subtle difference between using models to express and share what we know, and using models to unveil and understand what we don’t. Not a big difference, but one worth exploring and discussing.

Here’s a fun exercise: take two random visualization models that have nothing to do with each other and force them together. Break them apart and see if you can put them back together.

Stretch Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs across a second dimension, like RKS did with their Psycho-Aesthetics® Map. That x-axis could be anything: time, money, frequency of any particular behavior or social interactions. Make something up. It’s that easy.

Or maybe bend a cultural map around a 2x2 matrix. Cultural maps tend to float around, spatially unhinged like flip flop guy at Coachella on a existential walkabout. Let’s give it some polarity and see what shakes out. Here’s a visualization I created that illustrates interviews with local farmers as a cultural map framed against the 4 Ps of Marketing: Product, Promotion, Place, and Price. The connections between entities are also color-coded by sentiment; green means positive, red means negative. Color-coding for sentiment is a powerful concept that can be applied almost anywhere.

Cultural maps are a massive distraction in a slide deck, so I stripped it down to focus solely on sentiment. There’s much to be said about friction and the future. This visualization hints at the possible evolution of local food networks toward collaborative production, in the form of joint-offering CSAs.

This visualization started on paper and took a few iterations before arriving at what you see here. The magic is in the process of reconciling these two unrelated models, revealing a treasure trove of deeper nuance and interconnectedness.

Your turn!

What crazy one-off visuals have you created?

What other models could we mash together to visualize sentiment?

This article was originally published at VoltaCollaborative.com