Blogworld 09 - Creating Great Visuals

David Armano gave a talk on adding cool stuff to your blog post. The description can be found here. Here are my notes:

• "The eyes are not reponsible when the mind does the seeing" - Publilius Syrus.


• Dave went through a lot of good examples of how important visuals are to conveying information.


• It's important to present information in a very simple way so that people can grasp the concept immediately. It's a messy process to get to a simple diagram, but don't worry about that. The process to get to simplicity is complex. Simple visuals have the ability to grab your attention.


• Mindmap got a plug. I've always enjoyed mind manager, but I think it's got some serious limitations when it comes to posting information on the web.


• 6 steps to getting visual.


1. Empathize: See the world as a child.


2. Memorize: Commit thoughts to memory. Draw out your ideas.


3. Analyze: Take a step back.


4. Synthesize: Filter signal from noise. This is crucial and it's where most people fail.


5. Visualize: See it, then do it. David uses Adobe Illustrator to do his visuals.


6. Materialize: Make it tangible, make it stick. Make it something that grabs people and they take note of what you created.
• Dave went through a concrete example of a visual he made for HiveMind that went through these steps. It was excellent, but difficult to replicate here.


• The wrong question is what software he uses - Adobe Illustrator, the right question is how he goes through the process of developing the visuals. He admitted that Adobe Illustrator has a steep learning curve. He claimed he could have done the HiveMind graphic in Gliffy or PowerPoint as well.


• He recommended Tufte's Envisioning Information, Gray's Selling to the VP of No and Krug's Don't Make Me Think.

Here, David is preparing to take a photo of the audience, probably to use it as a great visual later on!