A big part of creating a concept is being able to represent it visually to a client who can’t pry open your skull and see exactly what you’re seeing in your head. Any amount of gesturing, “like”s and “sort of like”s, or crappy metaphors are not going to make your message clear – or worse, it’ll completely distort it.
So how do you take that gooey sticky idea in your head and translate it onto paper or PDF and still have it make sense to someone who’s seeing it for the first time? Here’s a Periodic Table of Visualisation Methods – a handy, and very effective example of information visualisation on its own.
Because we’re working with the web and more often than not have only a day or a few hours to come up with a concept, we usually jump straight to a wireframe and/or look and feel of the website – which can be helpful, but when it comes to figuring out how the site works, or how a user is going to experience the site, that’s when some of the scrambling happens. Notice how both are not on the visualisation table – that’s because a look and feel only suggests what a site will look like, but not a holistic visual and interactive experience.
Of course, if a site has a relatively simple and linear structure, our clients are able to visualise the site flow and outcomes in their heads. However, when a site involves a complex backend, hidden aspects of the site the user cannot see, then we also create a process diagram (a hybrid of a concept skeleton, process event chain, and technology roadmap) is definitely helpful. Outlining and agreeing on your user’s process means a faster, pain-free project build – and no nasty surprises!
While you and I will probably never use a ‘knowledge map’ or ‘heaven n’ hell chart’ in an agency, you could certainly come up with convincing arguments for, say, your partner to do the dishes otherwise you’ll make life a living hell for him/her, or your grandparents to send more money in birthday cards or you’ll drown in the ocean of oblivion…or something.
