REFLECTION – VISUALIZATION

CHALLENGE & SELECTION

I work for the communications team of an education company, wherein my primary  responsibility is towards drafting and briefing of various communication outline for  products, brands and often the digital assets like website and landing pages. Many  times it happens that good ideas get shot down in the absence of clear  understanding or one's inability to communicate the same effect due to lack of time  or deliver the same to the knowledge of the individual or group of individuals on the  other side of the table. Understanding of new age concepts or any innovation that  one is trying to drive is subject to exposure, or at times even the mood of the  stakeholders.

Visualization, or Visual Thinking as a tool, often comes in handy to get over such  limitations and demonstrate thoughts, probable outputs or scenarios in a corporate  environment which encompasses people and resource from multilingual and  multicultural background and regions where often the understanding over critical  discussions varies and mostly is driven by the primary business objective than  communication. It also helps save a lot of time, efforts and money by ensuring the  output is clearly understood and have buy-in from relevant stakeholders.  I have made  use of drawing on ppt formats with images and textual representation that helps set  the context towards the point in the discussion. The case, in particular, I am referring  to is about designing our new website for our school brand which has recently  undergone a brand refresh with the core ideology being ‘Discover Yourself’. The  challenge was to create a website which is distinctly different in its approach, look  and feel and communication objective from any other school website, however, the  primary challenge was to get a buy-in from relevant stakeholders on the new concept  that is distinctive from other brands in this category.

APPLICATION

I started with doing my research on relevant category websites, looking through them,  breaking down their thought process and listing the dos and don ts for our new  website. The outcome of the entire process was that all school brand websites look  the same with pictures of students playing infield or studying at the library/ classroom  and photographs of the infrastructure. Even the internal stakeholder had a similar  concept in mind for their next school website. I also had a small informal conversation  with parents who have recently got their ward enrolled in a school to understand the  user journey and critical aspects that influence their decision making when looking for  a school for their child, and website of the school played a major role in decision  making while they create the consideration list for the possible set of schools that  needed a visit for further enquiry. My objective was to put together any output that  has a higher recall when parents are making their consideration list.

I drew first few cuts myself on the paper to get a clear structure of the website in my  head, the clearer the picture the easier to explain and communicate the new  thought to stakeholders before getting into execution. Here is a glimpse of the  creation on ppt for the reference of the stakeholders

INSIGHT & APPROACH

The idea of creating a visual representation of my thoughts and presenting it made  the task much easier to explain and get an approval from immediate stakeholders in  spite of the same being drastically being different from what they had in mind and  what other school brands are doing. The discussion thereafter helped change a lot of  perspective and biases on how a school brand needs to be portrayed or looked at.  What it helped change with immediate effect was that, for the very first time, the  discussion was not about the facilities or infrastructure or school ambience and  representing them, it was about communicating the thought and philosophy, the  reason the brand exists.

Without a visual representation of this thought, it would have been highly unlikely to  communicate this thought to the stakeholders and change the course of their  thinking. The graphical representation gave the diverse group of stakeholders a  central point for discussion that allowed the team to share their perspectives and  develop insights into how and what we communicate with the new brand ideology.

Can’t imagine how this discussion would have folded out in absence of a visualisation  tool. They could quickly relate to the thought with the help of a graphical  representation thereby drop their biases and realigning their thought to the new age  communication. Since then all the concepts, thoughts I propose and present or intent  to present have a visual thinking tool integrated into it.


REFLECTION – VISUALIZATION CHALLENGE & SELECTION I work for the communications team of an education company , wherein my primary responsibility is towards drafting and briefing of various communication outline for products , brands and often the digital assets like website and landing pages . Many times it happens that good ideas get shot down in the absence of clear understanding or one 's inability to communicate the same effect due to lack of time or deliver the same to the knowledge of the individual or group of individuals on the other side of the table . Understanding of new age concepts or any innovation that one is trying to drive is subject to exposure , or at times even the mood of the stakeholders . Visualization , or Visual Thinking as a tool , often comes in handy to get over such limitations and demonstrate thoughts , probable outputs or scenarios in a corporate environment which encompasses people and resource from multilingual and multicultural background and regions where often the understanding over critical discussions varies and mostly is driven by the primary business objective than communication . It also helps save a lot of time , efforts and money by ensuring the output is clearly understood and have buy - in from relevant stakeholders . I have made use of drawing on ppt formats with images and textual representation that helps set the context towards the point in the discussion . The case , in particular , I am referring to is about designing our new website for our school brand which has recently undergone a brand refresh with the core ideology being ‘ Discover Yourself ’ . The challenge was to create a website which is distinctly different in its approach , look and feel and communication objective from any other school website , however , the primary challenge was to get a buy - in from relevant stakeholders on the new concept that is distinctive from other brands in this category . APPLICATION I started with doing my research on relevant category websites , looking through them , breaking down their thought process and listing the dos and don ts for our new website . The outcome of the entire process was that all school brand websites look the same with pictures of students playing infield or studying at the library/ classroom and photographs of the infrastructure . Even the internal stakeholder had a similar concept in mind for their next school website . I also had a small informal conversation with parents who have recently got their ward enrolled in a school to understand the user journey and critical aspects that influence their decision making when looking for a school for their child , and website of the school played a major role in decision making while they create the consideration list for the possible set of schools that needed a visit for further enquiry . My objective was to put together any output that has a higher recall when parents are making their consideration list . I drew first few cuts myself on the paper to get a clear structure of the website in my head , the clearer the picture the easier to explain and communicate the new thought to stakeholders before getting into execution . Here is a glimpse of the creation on ppt for the reference of the stakeholders INSIGHT & APPROACH The idea of creating a visual representation of my thoughts and presenting it made the task much easier to explain and get an approval from immediate stakeholders in spite of the same being drastically being different from what they had in mind and what other school brands are doing . The discussion thereafter helped change a lot of perspective and biases on how a school brand needs to be portrayed or looked at . What it helped change with immediate effect was that , for the very first time , the discussion was not about the facilities or infrastructure or school ambience and representing them , it was about communicating the thought and philosophy , the reason the brand exists . Without a visual representation of this thought , it would have been highly unlikely to communicate this thought to the stakeholders and change the course of their thinking . The graphical representation gave the diverse group of stakeholders a central point for discussion that allowed the team to share their perspectives and develop insights into how and what we communicate with the new brand ideology . Ca n’t imagine how this discussion would have folded out in absence of a visualisation tool . They could quickly relate to the thought with the help of a graphical representation thereby drop their biases and realigning their thought to the new age communication . Since then all the concepts , thoughts I propose and present or intent to present have a visual thinking tool integrated into it .