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The Visual Thinking and Visual Communication course focuses on these core concepts and the skills required to "speak" visual language. Please bear in mind that the course is for beginners. You don't have to be able to draw a straight line in order to take this course.

Investigate the fundamentals of visual language
(The integration of words, images, and shapes to produce a unified communication). First, we focus on learning what visual language is, what it looks like, and why it's important.

Sorting the contributions of verbal and visual elements to meaning in visual language
Quite early in the course we look at the questions: What functions do visual elements perform best? What do words do best? In this study we identify 18 of the most important functions. Some of the topics:

Why you need to know the importance of semantic function in visual communication

• Identify rhetorical functions of visual-verbal elements
• Analyze and apply subject matter functions
• When and why visuals work better than words, and when words work better than visuals
• What you get when words and images are working together

How multiple and complex information gets visually organized
We then start looking at the major vocabularies and components of visual language. We make a careful study of a special class of diagrams called cluster diagrams that are essential for analyzing and managing multiple levels of complexity. Some of the topics:

• Eight cognitive science principles you should know in designing cluster diagrams
• Increase your communication effectiveness: Choose from 15 different cluster diagram types.
• How cluster diagrams help you get away from boring bulleted lists
• Information hierarchy: Use 11 different visual syntactical approaches
• Determine when visual syntax matches semantics in cluster diagrams
• Four basic approaches to analyzing complex subjects
• Diagnose improper use of cluster diagrams

Visual tools for disambiguating your presentations
We then introduce VLicons (Visual Language icons), which add brief labels to help disambiguate icons. In this part of the course, participants also begin to acquire the skill of idea sketching for creative brainstorming and analysis. Some of the topics:

• Icons and VLicons: How to choose which works best
• What does the cognitive science research data show about icons by themselves?
• Examine 12 design considerations in using Icons and VLicons (visual language icons)
• Analyze the visual and verbal components of VLicons
• Apply 5 crucial criteria for evaluating visual elements of VLicons
• Idea-sketch 5 most useful VLicons
• Clip art: explore its role in creating and choosing icons and VLicons

Why diagrams are so critical in managing and presenting information and how to use them most effectively
We make the initial presentation of Bob Horn's new comprehensive theory of diagramming, called Diagram Prototypes. We analyze what works and what doesn't work. Some of the topics:

• Identify the 5 principal communication functions of diagrams including:
• Structure
• Organization
• Motion
• Change
• Causality
• Analyze the precise role of each component in a diagram
• Examine and apply the 5 visual and multiple verbal levels to the analysis of diagrams
• Determine which kinds of diagrams work best with different documents
• Apply principles of visual syntax and semantics to diagrams
• Diagnose frequent flaws that make diagrams worse than useless
• Use icons and VLicons in diagrams

Including Graphics and Illustrations in Your Presentations
We can't produce professional artists in two days. But we do identify the important distinctions about what kind of graphics and illustrations to include in a document. Some of the topics:

• Close the communication gap between writers and artists in designing effective visual presentations
• Why you should know the vocabulary of visual representation
• Increase your ability to talk with illustrators and graphic artists
• How to use simple idea-sketching to get your visual ideas across more effectively and to be more creative in your problem solving
• Recognize 8 of the most commonly used styles of rendering
• Gain a better grasp of perspective and point-of-view in visual representation
• Choose when to use photographs or drawings
• Integrate 10 important conventions from cartooning (including time and motion) into your representations
• Tips on the "tricks" artists and illustrators use

Their Role in Making Visual Presentations More Effective
There are hundreds of different kinds of quantitative charts and graphs used in business. This important section reviews how to incorporate quantitative charts and graphs into visual presentations, how to focus their messages, and how to spot and correct common errors.

MacroVU Communication Units (CUs)
We then present a new look at the units of communication that tightly integrate all of the elements of visual language -- words, images, and shapes. We call them the MacroVU Communication Units (CU) in the course. Recent research shows that such tight integration reduces errors and improves speed in problem solving. Some of the topics:

• Why a new type of communication unit is needed for visual language and why it is so important for communication in business, industry and technology
• How to integrate text and visuals into a single communication unit
• Why cognitive science theory leads to MacroVU CUs
• What the research data show about integrating text and visual elements
• Why MacroVU CUs help organizations manage multi-level, multi-purpose information more efficiently
• Use this newest methodology for getting the "whole" picture
• Discover rationale behind visual and verbal components
• Identify at least 3 communication levels in MacroVU CUs
• Speed up problem-solving with MacroVU CUs
• Why MacroVU CUs reduce errors in understanding
• How to eliminate unnecessary blocks of text
• Which valuable tools to use to show interconnection of ideas

Optional Section of the Course
We have a short, optional section that provides the major principles and research on using color. We suggest approaches to the most effective uses of color in documents and on computer screens.

Throughout the course, the emphasis is on learning to speak visual language in practical and relevant applications. Participants leave with a comprehensive conceptual toolbox, 81 pages of job aids, and visual language skills they can use immediately on the job. They have also learned techniques and shortcuts that artists and art directors use to quickly develop a visual idea. And they do a final project that puts it all together in two and a half hours.