Reflection Visualization

Challenge  During my college days, I had participated in some of the technical events  which used to be organized in the technical fests and I started organizing  those events in the later years. One such event was ‘Industrial Tycoon’ in  which we had to design a problem based on real life industry scenario for  example – how to optimize the productivity of a tyre manufacturing plant etc,  under the given set of constraints. Earlier, the problem statement included  ‘words’ or ‘paragraphs’ only. Though every details were described properly  in words, it became difficult for the participants to understand the subject.  They asked many questions which seemed ambiguous and later our team  realized that it was not easy to simplify the problem statement more by using  words and paragraphs otherwise it would have become easier and  predictable. So, we needed some sort of innovation for developing the  problem statement.    Selection  Learning from the feedback that we got from our participants and going  through serious brainstorming, I realized finally that we were confining the  problem statement without using tools for exactly visualizing the problem. So  I took ‘Visualisation tool’ in the present context.    Application  Instead of using words, I started using pie charts, histograms, flowcharts,  maps, symbols etc to show the exact scene which needed to be presented.  The application of Visualisation tool is specific to the problem statement of  the event. It can be understood by taking some of the examples like

 I had to mention some cities, out of which some were market locations

and some were manufacturing plants,with their coordinates to get the  distance between them. For this, I used the map and showed the the  market location by stars while the plants by circles. Also it was not  needed to exactly give the coordinates because the map was scaled  on Cartesian system.

 Also there was a sequence of operations to be followed in the problem

but it involved different criteria. So it became easier by using the  flowcharts which showed the relation between different operations  clearly.

 Using different colours for different products and showing colours on

pie charts to explain the market share, price distribution; in graphs to  show forecast and future trends made it really simpler to understand  without making difficult efforts and saved time.

Insight   After using the tool, the number of silly queries that I use to get in the earlier  such event got reduced. I realized that it became significantly and relatively  easier for the participants to understand the problem without changing the  subject of the problem. It conveyed the same meaning that it used to convey  without diagrams, charts and maps. I understood that visualization can be  applied in all such case where we have many constraints that cannot be  mentioned in paragraphs but can be easily represented in the different  visualization tools forms.    Approach  Moving forward I started using this tool in most of the interactive sessions,  not only with the problem statements of such events but also during  presenting seminars during my engineering and presenting projects.    The alternate tool that can be used in this type of problems is Learning  Launch tool in which we can make a problem statement of such event and  get it reviewed by a small group, and measuring the effectiveness and  change the methodology accordingly, modifying the statement later.


Reflection Visualization Challenge During my college days , I had participated in some of the technical events which used to be organized in the technical fests and I started organizing those events in the later years . One such event was ‘ Industrial Tycoon ’ in which we had to design a problem based on real life industry scenario for example – how to optimize the productivity of a tyre manufacturing plant etc , under the given set of constraints . Earlier , the problem statement included ‘ words ’ or ‘ paragraphs ’ only . Though every details were described properly in words , it became difficult for the participants to understand the subject . They asked many questions which seemed ambiguous and later our team realized that it was not easy to simplify the problem statement more by using words and paragraphs otherwise it would have become easier and predictable . So , we needed some sort of innovation for developing the problem statement . Selection Learning from the feedback that we got from our participants and going through serious brainstorming , I realized finally that we were confining the problem statement without using tools for exactly visualizing the problem . So I took ‘ Visualisation tool ’ in the present context . Application Instead of using words , I started using pie charts , histograms , flowcharts , maps , symbols etc to show the exact scene which needed to be presented . The application of Visualisation tool is specific to the problem statement of the event . It can be understood by taking some of the examples like  I had to mention some cities , out of which some were market locations and some were manufacturing plants , with their coordinates to get the distance between them . For this , I used the map and showed the the market location by stars while the plants by circles . Also it was not needed to exactly give the coordinates because the map was scaled on Cartesian system .  Also there was a sequence of operations to be followed in the problem but it involved different criteria . So it became easier by using the flowcharts which showed the relation between different operations clearly .  Using different colours for different products and showing colours on pie charts to explain the market share , price distribution ; in graphs to show forecast and future trends made it really simpler to understand without making difficult efforts and saved time . Insight After using the tool , the number of silly queries that I use to get in the earlier such event got reduced . I realized that it became significantly and relatively easier for the participants to understand the problem without changing the subject of the problem . It conveyed the same meaning that it used to convey without diagrams , charts and maps . I understood that visualization can be applied in all such case where we have many constraints that can not be mentioned in paragraphs but can be easily represented in the different visualization tools forms . Approach Moving forward I started using this tool in most of the interactive sessions , not only with the problem statements of such events but also during presenting seminars during my engineering and presenting projects . The alternate tool that can be used in this type of problems is Learning Launch tool in which we can make a problem statement of such event and get it reviewed by a small group , and measuring the effectiveness and change the methodology accordingly , modifying the statement later .