How to make ideas quickly visible

Aug 10

Written By Pamela Calero

3 Strategies for Fast Idea Presentation

In a fast-paced life, people are constantly bombarded with an overwhelming amount of information, making it challenging for any single idea to stand out and be remembered. That’s why making ideas quickly visible is so helpful for projects to be easily understood and shared with diverse audiences.

Making ideas quickly visible ensures that your key visuals will not only catch the attention of your audience but also leave a lasting impression on their minds. By adopting strategies like simplifying complex concepts, visual storytelling, and thoughtful design for accessibility and inclusivity, you can condense complex concepts into clear and concise visuals that convey the essence of your project at a glance.

In this blog post, we will explore 3 strategies to help you effectively present your project in a key visual or visual form, facilitating engagement and impact:

Simplify complex concepts
Use Visual Storytelling
Design for Accessibility and Inclusivity

Keep reading to learn more about each step :)

I recently reiterated the significance of making complex messages quickly visible, with the Key Visual project I developed.

The Key Visual was commissioned for the Centre for Humanitarian Action Annual conference 2023, titled: ‘Tackling power imbalances in humanitarian action - with technology and locally led management?’. It was essential that the outcome of the key visual made ‘equitable partnership’ and ‘power imbalances’ between the individual actors in humanitarian aid quicky visible.

In humanitarian work, when trying to convey the importance and urgency of your projects, effective communication of key visuals is essential to make projects understood and presented to a diverse audience, including policymakers, donors, beneficiaries, and fellow humanitarians.

Key Visual for Centre for Humanitarian Action Annual conference 2023.

CHA’s conference this year aimed to emphasize and question how tackling power imbalances in humanitarian action with technology and locally led management, in equitable partnership. That means that everyone had same power and voice, and the inflexion point of the conference was stating how power imbalances con be tackled with local management and data soverignty, with the affected people leading the way out of the situation.

Seeing this process reflected in the outcome of the project led me to reflect on how we can make ideas quickly visible. These strategies work for me, and that's why I want to share the steps on how to do it, in case it is useful for you and in hopes of motivating you to take action and give shape to your projects and ideas.

How to make ideas quickly visible

1.

Simplify Complex Concepts:

Complex ideas and concepts can overwhelm your audience, hindering their ability to grasp the essence of your key visual project. To make ideas quickly visible, aim to simplify and distill your project's core message. ¿What is it really? Use clear and concise language, avoiding jargon and technical terms.

2.

Use Visual Storytelling

Harness the power of visual storytelling to make your key visual project relatable and memorable. Incorporate illustrations and images that showcase examples of the project's significance and the challenges it aims to address. Remember, compelling narratives resonate far more effectively than data alone.

3.

Design for Accessibility and Inclusivity:

Turn complex topics into something more familiar and easier to understand. Use clever analogies that resonate with your audience and allow them to clearly visualize the purpose and value of your project.

Your visual materials should be accessible and inclusive by people with different backgrounds, languages, and abilities. Use universally recognizable symbols and icons to convey ideas that transcend language barriers. Also, choose a color scheme that supports readability and represent inclusivity considering the context, situation and diversity. This will make your project accesible and nuanced.

Humanitarian work often revolves around stories of impact and change. Our key visual aimed to emphasize specific challenges and contributes to the broader goals of humanitarian work.