More Signal, Less Noise
Use visuals to convey meaning, not just information
Each day, I try to avoid visual blather. I can tell when I’ve gone past my quota. I get the same feeling I got in 6th grade on the Tilt-a-Whirl, a spinny ride at the summer carnival.
My visual strategy practice, VisuaLeverage, sprung out of two decades of experience working in and around medical care and public health systems — two systems whose complexity can induce that same kind of Tilt-a-Whirl nausea. Too many great ideas fail because communication is too complex, and too many “meetings” waste precious face time. I work with clients to visually communicate key points and design highly visual group processes to fully engage participants. The most common challenges? Sticking to the basics.
In a world of over-information, visual cues can help us navigate complexity. Here are three tips for using visuals to create more signal, less noise.
Make your message into “brain candy.” To appeal to today’s human eyeballs, take a long, evolutionary look back. We evolved to be highly visual creatures. In fact, the first organisms with photo-receptor cells appeared about 740 million years ago. For the first time, our ancient little forebears miraculously sensed illuminated contrast (light and shadow). This visual strategy remains a core strategy we use to find our way in the world.
Later on, simple “eyes” could detect lines, shapes, UV light, and color. It wasn’t until 735 million years later that the first hominids set their eyes on the landscape. Mammalian eyes had come a long, long way. The eyes of early humans transmitted complex visual information to bigger and bigger brains, increasingly picking up on subtle environmental shifts, social cues and meaning. Key foundations of early vision remain core to the way we see the world today:
Contrast shows us dimension and direction: Which way is up?
Lines lead our eyes along boundaries and paths to focal points. Horizontal lines can “ground” us, while diagonals can sometimes give us that Tilt-a-Whirl feeling.
Size tells us a lot about importance. If something is bigger, it often matters more. Size also lets us know relative distance. (Is this saber-toothed tiger closer than that one?)
Color provokes complex responses, so use it with care.
Faces draw our attention like few other cues. Hard-wired to look for faces, we seek recognition and connection quickly — quite literally in the blink of an eye.
Sound familiar? It’s probably because artists figured out these “rules” some time ago. Contrast and line, two elementary principles we learn in art class, feed “candy” to human brains seeking orientation and meaning. The most common way to achieve clarity? Pare things down, and pay attention to the basics.
When you don’t have much time, start with your point. When your CEO tells you she has three minutes to hear your idea, use a visual to make the first impression the most important. The tip of the triangle of information should point up at the main point, not down to the “conclusion.” If you include a strategic visual to summarize that main point, you’re golden.
Break complex concepts into 3’s. There is some good evidence that by breaking big ideas into groups of three sub-concepts, we can help people understand and recall the key points. McKinsey’s “pyramid principle” builds on Barbara Minto’s original idea for structured, memorable communication. Mona Chalabi recommends sequencing visual information to maximize understanding.
Bonus tip: Drawing out your ideas on paper can also help you become clearer about your key messages. This exercise also engages distinct parts of the brain, increasing your likelihood of taking a more creative angle.
When it comes to increasing signal and cutting noise, simple visuals can go a long way to engaging audiences. And reducing visual blather.
For more information about how visuals can make complex ideas more useful, visit www.visualeverage.com. And if you liked this story, give it a clap! Doing so helps ensure others might benefit, too.
