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Graphics and the Communication Process

Kathy Sierra makes some great points about how to use graphics to really communicate a point. I instantly bought several of the books she describes and all the points really hit home.

Whenever I have worked on designing a communication I always think about the graphics first and the words second. If the idea can not be clearly communicated with a flowchart or other simple illustration then no amount of words either spoken or written will likely get the point across.

Being in construction I'm sure everyone can relate - could you imagine building a project based on the written specification manual? We could all imagine building a project and filling in the details based on a few good elevation drawings. The interpretation from person to person on the details would vary but only slightly. There would be far wider variation if the same project were described in 2-3 written pages with no pictures or illustrations.

You will have far better results from your communication efforts if you spend enough time thinking of a simple way to illustrate it on a slide, half a page or full page.

Use words to fill in the details. If you are going to skimp on anything skimp on the words.

If you are designing a process for the company such as RFI's or Change Orders spend time on a flowchart illustrating clearly who is responsible and what the ultimate outcome should be (cash, customer satisfaction, quality, etc.)

Creating this illustration and getting people to buy into it is the heavy lifting. Filling in the details with words is just the icing on the cake.

Posted by David Brown on November 12, 2006 09:43 AM|Permalink

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