The World Learns Visually, Through Images And Moving Mediums
In the past decade, we have seen a rapid, societal shift in spatial — or what we now call visual — learning. The advancements in technology, media, platforms and smart devices have led video, photographs, and digital visualisation via software tools to become the primary way in which we understand information and organize our ideas and thought processes.
New York University’s James Bruner notes in the Power of Visual Communication,“People remember 10% of what they hear, 20% of what they read, 80% of what they say and do.In fact, 83% of learning comes from a combination of visual and oral communication.” It’s fair to say that instead of reading text, we have have shifted towards visual ways of disseminating information. The insights derived from the way we use visuals are being used to facilitate more potent ways of communicating in order to reach goals our goals.
Why are seeing visuals being used to communicate information these days? Well, for the same reason that a photo is said to be worth a thousand words: 1 = 1,000. It seems that moving mediums – animated gifs, photographs and videos – have become one of our default modes of sorting and understanding the vast amounts of information we are exposed to every day.
“Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside awakes.” – Carl Jung
“Visual Culture, which generally does not observe differences in language and levels of literacy, is key in this climate. Understanding how images circulated and what role they played to support the growth of a global information economy in the late twentieth century is crucial to understanding practices of looking in the twenty-first century,” writes Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright in The Practices of Looking. “Images are not only produced but consumed, they circulate within cultures and across cultural boundaries. The ability to transmit text, image and sound in one medium and through one network facilitates global interconnectivity, [conversation and commerce].”
As people, if we learn and retain more in images, how do we use imagery as our primary communication tool? Well first, we must understand the psychological drivers behind visual learning; most often that requires us to alter the way we think.
Alter Your Thought Processes
How we think directly impacts the way in which we see and perceive our world. That perception directly correlates to the way in which we express ideas in our creative output and outlets. In order to successfully create links and associations between concepts and ideas, and express those via imagery, we have to change the way we think and look at the world around us. However, our thought processes, for the most part, have been conditioned.
“Our reality is open to interpretation. What I see and experience is not necessarily what you see and experience. This is what makes our world a wonderfully diverse place in which to live,” says author and social behavior analyst Krista Peck, M.S. “If you choose to look at the positive, you will begin to connect the positive and share the positive. When you connect with the negative, you share the negative. Beyond basic human needs, people seek things like peace, insight, enlightenment, health and efficiency – an idea which was first beautifully articulated in the 1940s and 1950s by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.”
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau
In essence, by altering our patterns of thinking, we permit creativity and creative processes to come into play, we make space for our minds to connect dots and make correlations we were previously unable to make when we operated with linear, narrower thought processes. Freeing the mind allow us to obtain vision that enables creation.
As Steve Jobs noted in his famous commencement speech, “Creative thinkers produce ideas by finding the relationship between facts. Facts merely on their own are useless until one sees the connection between them.” This is a point that Don Beck drives home in the opening statement in his book Spiral Dynamics, “Spiral Wizards are individuals with the ability to see over vast landscapes, seeing patterns and connections that others don’t notice.”
When we are truly able to alter the way we think, creating multi-level, non-linear ways to look at the world and the challenges we face in it – we can then begin see the world in a whole new light. That wider understanding causes us to realize that in order to articulate what we now see, we need to use visual aids to help people understand what we want to show and teach them.
Leveraging Visual Learning
Working visually – with analog and digital tools – dramatically improves the engagement and understanding of almost anything as it speeds up our ability to process information. Remember, as human beings, our brains search for patterns. We’re wired with an inherent need to gain insight, we learn from mistakes and alter behavior accordingly. But beyond that, since we are designed to look for patterns, visualization information (goes beyond learning and) can also help us to think outside of the box.
“We learn 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50 % of what we see and discuss, 70% of what we discuss, 80% of what we experience and 95% of what we teach others. – William Glasser
Visuals masterfully tell the story of a person, a cause, a company — almost any single or group of people wishing to convey a message to any and every audience in more engaging, inspiring ways; and that story will capture the imaginations of those hearing it. Why do you think visual technologies have become the perfect connector for our need to learn, understand, improve and communicate?
Technology and Visual Communication
“Apps, softwares and technologies that allow us to articulate information in visual and auditory ways serve individual creativity and group co-creativity. On an individual level, these technologies connect the logical mind with the wisdom of the unconscious. Rarely does an “a-ha” moment arrive when we are struggling to come up with answers. Rather, our insights tend to emerge when the mind is at rest or during playful moments, which are facilitated by these new technologies.” says Eileen Clegg, author of Visual Insight. “Visuals are the language of intuition and imagination. For groups, they are the language of co-creativity and innovation.”
Platforms such as Secret, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine and Twitter fulfill our need for dissemination and sharing information in our own form, at our own pace – whether rapid or in our own time. These platforms do it in quick, easy to understand and efficient manners. It’s why we use them to not only share, but also to source the answers we seek.
These technologies are returning us to the most human roots of communication at a time when we are overwhelmed with information and choices in an increasingly technological world. By understanding visualisation, we’re able to do what many still feel is hardest and greatest thing to do – connect and communicate.
Making The Connection
- How did you alter your thought processes in order to learn how to communicate with visuals?
- How do you use visuals to convey stories, ignite discussion or connect with your communities?
- What technologies have a played a role in that?
Photos: vaXzine,