The Power of Visuals for Data and Stories

Reading time: 4-6 minutes

Learning Types

In a world where we face the crisis of information overload, it is more crucial than ever to be able to communicate data and insights concisely. I have always been fascinated by the differences in learning styles favoured by distinct individuals. The Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic (VARK) sensory modalities are used to categorize various learning experiences. Visual learners prefer information in maps, diagrams, graphs, and flow charts. You can think of the visual mode as any information that can be drawn and connected on a whiteboard. Conversely, aural or auditory learners are best able to retain information when it is presented in a lecture form, group discussion, radio, or any medium that is heard or spoken. The reading and writing learning style is self-explanatory; it includes all written forms such as manuals, reports, essays, and information that is conveyed with words. Last but not least, the kinesthetic modality is the preference for demonstrations, simulations, case studies and all practical examples. Although an individual can be multimodal, it is more common to have a particular standout mode of learning. It is important to consider the broad range of learning preferences in your audience whenever you are trying to convey an idea.

Note: If you are less interested in how it personally relates to me, you may skip to the examples provided below of how powerful visuals can be.

Experience

I had the pleasure of working as a teaching assistant for two engineering courses during my undergraduate studies: Engineering Design & Graphics and Design Communication. Both courses involved the use of 3D-modelling software for mechanical design, simulation and visualization called Autodesk Inventor. One challenge I faced with the first-year students was in developing their geometric and spatial sense or being able to recognize, visualize, represent and transform complex geometric shapes. In order to be an effective TA, I aimed to engage multiple sensory modalities in each student. For example, while modelling a ball bearing part in Inventor, it was useful to provide examples of where the part is used and how it moves in a real application. An assembly diagram such as the one below is an example of a visual aid that can be helpful. 

Source: Bike Forums, Bike Assembly Exploded View

Importance

My VARK learning preferences in order are: Visual, Kinesthetic, Read/Write, and Aural. This bias towards visual and kinesthetic learning contributed to my decision to pursue a degree in Mechanical Engineering rather than Electrical. My preference originated from the technological design and manufacturing courses that I took in high school. I realized that my engagement levels were much higher and it was easier for me to retain the material taught in these practical classes. Learning styles are specific for individual learners and reflect their preference for specific sensory modes or certain environmental conditions to optimally recognize and process information inputs. There are objective tools to study activity in the brain in response to the different VARK sensory modalities. Greenham et al. (2000) showed that pictures elicit a greater change in event-related potential (ERP), which measures voltage changes within the brain in response to a particular event, as compared to words. This is likely supported by the picture superiority effect which describes the concept that pictures are easier to recognize than words. Studies show that when performing picture and word recognition tasks, subjects are more likely to remember visual pictures (Thepsatitporn and Pichitpornchai, 2016). For the remainder of this piece, I will analyze and compare a few examples of effective visuals and explain the reasons why I think they should be utilized as a communication/teaching strategy whenever possible.

Example 1: Likelihood of Global Risks, four-factor graph

Source: World Economic Forum, 2007-2020, Global Risks Report

Fast insights:

• Environment risks should be the focus of 2020.
• Top 3 most likely global risks from 2019 have not changed.
• Extreme weather has been flagged as a major risk since 2014.

Within this single image, there is a total of 3 different factors being presented: risk level, historic timeline, and category of risk. There is also a 4th detail subfactor that is communicated, which is a type of risk within the category.

Example 2: Visualization, Reading game on Elevate App

Source: Elevate - Brain Training, Elevate, Inc.

Fast insights:

• The game progresses in difficulty in each round, allowing the user to learn a few words at a time.
• Colours are used to indicate correct and incorrect answers.
• “Speedy Answer” numbers provide a visual quantifiable cue of how fast the user's reaction is.

The brain-training phone application Elevate, that is designed to improve the user's overall skill of reading, implements the technique of visualization. In the game, the words automatically become associated with the picture, making it much easier to recall difficult or unfamiliar words by accessing the memory of the corresponding image.

Example 3: Comparison of traditional graph vs. improved figure

Source: Statista, iOS Stagnates as Android Steams Ahead (left), The Smartphone Duopoly (right)

Fast insights:

• Four major smartphone operating systems existed at the beginning of 2010.
• Android dominated the market, due to it being an open-source project.

This is a clear comparison of a traditional graph that is used for numerical data versus a modified, more visual, figure. Both figures convey the same information, however, with the figure on the right it is much clearer to understand the dominance of iOS and Android in smartphone operating system market shares.

Example 4: Coronavirus Impact on Tech Industry

Source: TrendForce, Coronavirus expected to impact Tech Industry Shipments

Fast insights:

• Smartwatches will experience the largest impact in response to the outbreak as their assembly takes place closer to the source of the virus.
• Multiple tech categories are facing double-digit reductions in shipments.

Arranging the categories from least to most impacted makes it easy to understand their relative rankings. The use of icons within the bar graph is similar to the visualization technique used in example 2.

Example 5: Mars Hits and Misses

Source: GraphicOne, Mars Hits and Misses

Fast insights:

• The US has a significantly higher success rate for Mars missions.
• The Soviet Union currently does not have any planned missions to Mars, possibly due to the number of failures in the 60s and 70s.

This image is very busy but it can be analyzed fairly quickly. The factors are countries, type of mission, the status of the mission, and timeline.

Additional References:

1. Greenham SL, Stelmack RM, Campbell KB. Effects of attention and semantic relation on event-related potentials in a picture-word naming task. Biol Psychol 55: 79–104, 2000.
2. Thepsatitporn S, Pichitpornchai C. Visual event-related potential studies supporting the validity of VARK learning styles' visual and read/write learners. Adv Physiol Educ. 2016 Jun;40(2):206-12. doi: 10.1152/advan.00081.2015.