The power of visual information — and how YAAY can give you the key to it
“A picture is worth a thousand words”, an English idiom says. It refers to the notion that indeed even a complex idea often can be conveyed with just a single image more easily and effectively than by any words.
However, let’s face it, in today’s increasingly visual digital world, all of us are being flooded by optical information of all kind, and everywhere. Hence it is vital to get noticed with exactly your message.
This is where we at YAAY come in. Very early, we understood the importance of visualised information and specialised in it. Just some years ago, we were considered exotics in the design sector.
Since then, the boom of graphics set in, and our approach has become fairly “normal”. It is just good to know that we were and will stay ahead of the crowd, and our long successful experience gives us a significant advantage.
With the info-graphics that we develop for our clients’ projects, we make the most complex of information eye-catching, shareable and easily digestible. This ensures that messages get across and are conceived.
How do YAAY achieve this? In the following are four examples of practical applications in the field of Urban Development.
Visualisation as Analogue Communication: illustrated science methodologies in a playful book
YAAY contributed to a research project ‘QuAKTIV’ by the School of Social Work FHNW which examined planning and designing open spaces close to nature, with and for children in urban areas. Comprehensive findings of the project and the developed methods are now visualised in a special publication in an appealing but nevertheless scientifically correct way. This publication is designed as a working tool for spatial developers and educators. YAAY focused on the content, structured it and visualised it with illustrations, schemas, and other dynamic visual elements. We have developed a distinct visual and illustrative language, including necessary icons. A diagram serves as an overview as well as a navigator through the project and its methods. A foldable poster with the method and project overview was developed in addition to the printed book publication, and the existing website of the project was adapted in order to reflect the new visual language.
Visualisation as Analogue Presentation: facilitating a community workshop with a poster series
The community of Oberwil is going to become a city within the next few years. During this development, the reurbanisation of its Eisweiher Area is an important step. YAAY had been invited to set up and conduct a workshop for decision making. In this intensive workshop, 80 thought leaders from the district shared their visions for the urban development.
We approached the project with six Big Pictures, which represent the plan of the Eisweiher area with a focus on the results of the test planning, financing and urban development. The whole area is divided in four sub-areas, being marked by four distinguishable colours in the six posters. In addition, there is a graphical outlook towards further steps, and we created hand-outs and presentation slides. As a result of our approach, the workshop participants were able to discuss very complex topics in a creative and efficient way.
Visualisation as Digital Presentation: participation App for socially sustainable cities
The School of Social Work FHNW, working on a government-funded research project on socially sustainable city development, initially asked us to design a book for city planners with visualisations of the project. In close collaboration with the client, we redefined the task towards a more innovative solution: an interactive web application to assist city planners and for a quicker decision making processes in guided workshops. Our ‘Sona-City’-App provides an appealing interactive experience and enables planners to collaborate simultaneously and more effectively, exchange their opinions and learn from each other. We introduced a modern and abstract visual language, and we implemented innovative and engaging touch gestures for tablets and smartphones. Sona-City serves as a tool for the participants to playfully deal with the topic of urban development and sustainability in a professional and most effective smart way.
Visualisation as Analogue Participation: interactive bubble method on the topic of sufficiency
The city of Basel aimed to inform its inhabitants and raise awareness on eco-sufficiency at the Eco-Festival Basel in 2015. On the basis of data from eco-sufficiency studies on living, mobility and food, YAAY prepared a series of four poster boards to present the scientific results in an understandable and visually attractive way — three thematic posters and one summary poster were printed on wood with custom designed icons and diagrams. The interactive elements attracted the attention of the festival visitors and offered the opportunity to analyse their own eco-sufficiency behaviour.
We are very proud to say our project has been awarded the first prize in the ‘dpa-Infografik Award 2015’ by German Press Agency (dpa), amongst more than 130 participants in the non-daily infographic category.
If you wish to make the power of graphics work for you as well, YAAY has many creative ways to help you.
