Monday, July 5, 2010

Use Pictures to Communicate Not Words

As I move up the ranks at work I find myself asked more to share my ideas; as I get to present my ideas I noticed that the more casual (i.e. drawing on a white board) I present my ideas the better they "go-over" and get remembered by others.
Not only do my ideas "go-over" better with others, they also are more memorable to people. The order seems to go, from worst to best, verbal/Word without images, check list, Power Point/Word with text and pictures, and best of all, white board. I believe this happens for a few reason, but I the number one reason is words can have different means to different people.

Think about it, how often do two different people get the same mean from reading the same thing? Not often. If we did then we would not have introductions to books and teachers would not do anything but read to their classes. No, it seems that just words are bad at communicating ideas to people. Pictures are much better at communicating ideas and staying with us after the presentation. In fact most of our brain (75% according to Unfolding the Napkin) is used for processing what we see.

Which do you find communicates how a Data WebService works better?
Next time you need to communicate something to someone, try using a picture or two.