During this year’s Doctoral consortium prior to the IFERA conference, Jacopo Sacquegno gave an overview of what visual communication can achieve. In his presentation “Visual Thinking in Science” Jacopo presented general principles on how to depict and visually structure research ideas. Certainly, the whole field of visualization, visual communication, and semiotics is far too broad, deep, and complex to cover it all. Still, Jacopo managed to convey the key elements of visualization in his 90-minute presentation.
Key Elements of Visual Communication
The key takeaway were principles to synthesize one’s ideas with a specific target audience in mind. Having these principles and a target audience in mind forces us to narrow down all the information we know about a topic and focus on the crucial ones, putting them in relation, presenting their hierarchy, and highlighting their core characteristics. Deciding what is important is difficult: Is this piece of information relevant? Why? And to whom? Is it relational, connecting different elements of my idea? Or is it generative, inspiring associations and new ideas?
Hands-On Practice: Visualizing Research
To put this to practice, Jacopo presented the key elements of visual communication (spaces, scales, colors, shapes, lines) and how we can use them for our purposes. We (visually) communicate to spread ideas, to engage an audience, to update others, to create clarity for ourselves and others, to educate, and to foster discussion. Here, Jacopo stresses the power of visual metaphors because they involve multiple levels. Visual metaphors can describe, confront, and/or categorize. They engage the viewer’s mind, emotions, and even the body. Here you can explore some of his works to see for yourself how powerful and effective the use of visual metaphors can be.
To give our participants an idea of how all these concepts work, Jacopo challenged them to leave their comfort zone, forget about limiting thoughts of “I can’t draw”, and instead follow a simple and straightforward process: First, jot down keywords and concepts of our current research project or latest research idea; second, add information and details to these keywords and concepts; third, find and visualize the connections and relationships among these keywords and concepts. With this process, participants realized that by only using space and lines, they could already create a visualization of their research. Nevertheless, we could also need to employ colors, shapes, or different scales to communicate our ideas visually. Several participants appreciated to have been taken out of their comfort zone and challenged to write less to say more.
Common Pitfalls in Visual Communication
As powerful as visual communication might be, it provides for a plethora of pitfalls and misleading temptations. But Jacopo had our backs when he introduced all of us to the mistakes he often observes. Most importantly, he told us how to avoid them by literally showing them to us. Too much text, so that the viewer becomes a reader, losing track of the core of a picture’s message. Unproportionate spacing and scaling, suggesting unfitting closeness or distance, can cause confusion and misinterpretation of relationships or power. Too strong or weak colors distract the viewer’s focus from what is actually important. Finally, too complex compositions, i.e., having too many visual elements flying around, cause confusion and visual fatigue, and rarely inspire interest in what is in front of someone’s eye.
What did our participants say?
A lot of participants shared their impressions on this session with us and appreciated the insights they could take away. Although some recognize that this was a basic presentation of fundamental knowledge they should already know about, they also acknowledge it is rarely put to practice in research. Some participants especially liked that they were challenged to put their research proposals down in a new way that helped to clarify how to strengthen their ideas. Others regretted that there was not enough time to discuss and practice more.
Jacopo enjoyed the interest in his passion for visual communication, and participants trusted and followed him through his presentation. He wished he could have interacted more to convey the power of visualizing one’s ideas. Yet, he was happy that he could present the most important aspects. He hopes that participants will never hold back because of doubts about their drawing skills and rather embrace the simplicity of spacing and connecting dots with lines.
A Challenge for our Academic Community
This seems all too basic to talk about? Think of the last overloaded slide a colleague (or you?) presented. For sure, you have something in mind right now. We teach junior faculty members to write, preferably in clear, concise, appropriate, and accurate ways. Why do we not introduce them also to a similar approach to visual communication?
We thank Jacopo Sacquegno for his time and efforts. We thank our participants for joining him and us in learning something that we thought we already knew. At last, we want to challenge our readers: Can you present your latest research project without using letters and words? Make it visual!
If you want to learn more about visual communication in research here you can find more insights and inspiration.