It is said that “A Picture is worth a 1000 words;” not surprising since over 80% of people learn and retain information visually. The benefits of using visuals in what you do are numerous; when combined with text you increase the chance of people remembering what you said up to 90%.
The practice of using pictures to tell a story, to problem solve, to think through issues, and to communicate in a way that brings people together started from the beginning of time. Petroglyphs, and the Egyptian Hieroglyphics are all historical legacies that came from the moment man was able to create a dot, draw a line, turn said line into a circle or square.
People who told stories by capturing words, thoughts and ideas into visual images were called scribes; today companies are employing them as graphic recorders, Oglivy & Mather, a marketing communications company recruited a team of graphic recorders to cover and deliver visual reports of sessions at the SXSW Interactive conference and uploaded the visual images to Ogilvy Notes a companion website.
What is a graphic recorder?
Listen to how Nora Hertling, one of the ImageThink visual artists Oglivy and Mather recruited explains what a graphic recorder is.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbO_JSwoZhA&w=480&h=390]
What to know what graphic recording looks like? ImageThink facilitated over 70 of the SXSW Interactive 2011 sessions. Two of the ImageThink graphic recorders Liisa Sorsa and Nora Herting demonstrate how they translated the audiences words in to pictures.
Not everyone wants to draw but you can incorporate plenty of visuals in your own presentations or your webinars with web based programs like Creately and Flowchart as well as ready made templates. Some of the commercial software like Smartdraw, Mindmanager from Mindjet, and Tony Buzan’s imindmap software allow you to visually display your information that is easy to understand and easy for your customers to see themselves as part of the solution. For those who are budget conscious there are plenty tools and resources you can use that won’t break the bank.
People say that they can’t draw, that’s not true; if elephants can draw, so can you.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk&w=480&h=390]
What tools are you currently using or woul
d to like to learn/use to reach out and make your thoughts and ideas memorable?