Visual thinking is the use of the advantages of a person’s natural ability to see (not only with his eyes, but also mentally), which allows him to discover ideas that would otherwise go unnoticed; quickly and intuitively develop them, and then convey them in such a way that others quickly understand and accept them. Visual thinking involves the ability to think and evaluate the situation, thanks to what our eyes see. And no advanced technology is needed for this.

Collected, structured and visualized data and their focused consideration trigger the process of imagination. This is the moment of discovery, "eureka." There is an opportunity to see (predict) something that is not immediately visible: reasons, patterns, relationships, trends, deviating data, outstanding objects or qualities, etc.

The success of visual thinking and communication does not depend on artistic talent or education. We all speak visual language, and we have been developing this skill since childhood, when we simultaneously learn to speak and draw. It is children who easily draw and tell stories, share ideas. But if you ask adults if they can draw, only 1 out of 10 will answer “yes”, the others most likely “no”. But after all, they were also children and had a great command of visual communication skills, they drew to convey ideas. The bottom line is that with age, we begin to perceive painting as a fine art, and affirm in the thought that we do not know how to draw.

We easily read visual coding: road signs, navigation, icons on household appliances and on gadget screens. Whatever country of the world you are in, you can easily read the sign “pedestrian crossing”, even if its outline will be different from your usual one, because it is a visual language that you already know. It is universal, it is understood by people around the world and with its help you can quickly perceive information and make decisions.

 Therefore, to use visual communication, you do not need to be an artist, because this is not about art, but about ideas. Your drawings can be very simple and sketchy, the main thing is that they convey information.

Why it happens? This is due to the structure of our brain. According to the "triune brain theory", the reticular (or reptilian) brain of a person is the area responsible for attention and instant decision making. The reptilian brain has existed for 100 million years and has come to us from an ancient person whose main task was to survive. Therefore, seeing the danger, he needed to make a decision very quickly: to run, defend or freeze. His life could depend on a split second of delay. Therefore, we learned to instantly evaluate the information that we receive through the visual channel and make decisions: is there a danger or not. We still have this part of the brain in the form of the brain stem and cerebellum, and that is why we perceive visual information much faster and make a decision before we even realize this. The advantage of visual images over words in the speed of their processing is that the brain is more familiar with the figurative form of information processing. So we can change the combination of objects, sequence, relationships with other objects and immediately "see" the answer to our question.

We will consider 3 types of visual communication: sketched outing, scribing and graphic facilitation - we will see how they are similar and what are their significant differences.

Sketching (visual notes) - these are notes in which information is captured in a figurative-text format. Sketching is a visual synopsis, which, unlike a regular synopsis, consists not only of textual information, but also of diagrams, shapes, drawings, and various visual elements (frames, arrows, pictograms, etc.).

Scribing is a visualization of the main meaning with the help of signs and images, in which elements are drawn right in the course of the story. Scribing can take many forms.

Static scribing (scribing) - the final drawing, the result of the scribe or the final frame of video scribing, by studying which you can understand the logic of the entire message and the relationship between the individual elements.

Video scribing - scribing in the video format, which is most often accompanied by an off-screen voice of the announcer.

Graphic facilitation is a process of organizing group work aimed at achieving a team’s goals and objectives (forming a vision and values, setting goals, planning steps, etc.) in which interactive visual communication techniques are actively used.

Sketching, unlike scribing and graphic facilitation, is personal notes, they can use abbreviations, visual images and coding, understandable only to the author. The author may or may not share these notes; this is his choice. Such notes are created for the author’s task: to structure information, sort out a new topic, fix information.

Literature

What is Visual Thinking?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr6DN20NHvs

How to draw to remember more | Graham Shaw | TEDxVienna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj3ZnKlHqxI&t=4s

What is Visual Thinking?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZikhQ5w5Ck

Sketchnoting is a Superpower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQft0_nL9eI

How To Set Goals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qoCg5-NIPA

What is scribing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRLjDiJoi2

How visual thinking enhances the way we see and understand | Angelika Skotnicka | TEDxKazimierz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKe_Tn_2Luw