The power of pictures in communication
I just left a client meeting, where I used very basic block drawings to illustrate a point. 4 simple boxes was all it took to bring clarity to a point I was trying to make, and to cement understanding of a concept that words could not adequately convey.
Our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. With line, curve, color and space, we can represent ideas and data in an almost infinite number of ways. Why don’t we use pictures more often? Why do we continue to struggle with words? Words can clog our cognitive systems and obfuscate us. Pictures make things clear. Why don’t we all start drawing more pictures instead of writing lots and lots of words?
Here’s a great example of how pictures bring clarity to ideas. It’s from the homepage of apolloideas.com, a company that helps companies collect, synthesize and present their ideas better. Simple, elegant pictures = getting the point across clearly and effectively.
