Key insights on Visual Design Thinking 4/5
For anyone who wants to understand the potential of Visual Design Thinking for you and your organization.
By Michelle Geerlings
Remember my last article on Visual Design Thinking?
When people start talking about ‘Visual Design Thinking’ you will most likely get many question marks popping up in your head. In my opinion it is an area yet to explore after the introduction of Design Thinking, Agile working, Scrum Masters, and many other buzzwords that are used in business nowadays. I would like to help you gain some clarity on this subject.
As discussed in the first article: each week I’ll share one of the insights! Last week I explained that it’s the process that creates alignment. For the ones who are up for a challenge: Try to visualize the insights you gained from this article ;) For now: Time to reveal the fourth insight. Have fun while reading!
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4. Co-creation is key to generate ownership.
Visualizing helps to communicate an idea or story, but therefore it is crucial to be involved in the process of the creation of the visual to evoke that feeling of ownership. Don’t bother to shape that diamond in your cave, if you don’t involve others in the shaping process, they will not see the true value it represents.
It is easier to replicate a story once you’ve been developing it, rather than when you look at it from a fresh perspective. Participating in this process makes it possible to let the visual remind you of the deeper layers of decisions behind its creation. It conveys the message, reveals the deeper layers of information, decisions, and (metaphorical) associations that evoke the desired empathic feeling.
Try it yourself! (This is a great energizer, I’d recommend it!) Get together with a colleague. One of you draws a treasure on a A4 paper. This person is now the keeper of the treasure with the task to safeguard it by drawing. The other now needs to hijack that treasure by drawing. (From experience it quickly escalates to nuclear weapons or natural disasters.) Continue for a few rounds and then give the paper to another random colleague. Could he or she explain what’s visible on the paper? Probably not. But can you explain what happened according to the picture? Bet you still remember all the detailed information, including the decisions based upon each defense and steal attempt.
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Hope you enjoyed reading this article. It’s work in progress but hopefully it already enlightened you to some extent. Next week I’ll share the fifth insight, I’ll keep you posted! Still some question marks left unanswered? Feel free to reach out via LinkedIn, happy to answer them!
Note: By making a visual of each post, you’ll even remind it better! ;) Time to get yourself tons of papers and markers!
Cheers,
Michelle
