The Communicative Power of Visualization 

 Author : Yareli Thomas 

 Challenge 

 As a user experience designer within an organization that builds web applications , I work with a broad range of stakeholders that include 

 clients representing a diverse set of vertical markets , sales and marketing professionals ,   project managers , project owners within an Agile software development framework ,   backend and front - end developers . 

 In order to build successful web applications , we must start by building a shared understanding of the users and their contexts . Often neither written nor spoken language alone is suﬃcient for that to happen across the diverse knowledge domains represented by all stakeholders . 

 Visualization is a perfect tool that allows me to translate concepts across disciplines without losing the fundamental meaning to the jargon of each represented profession . By leveraging story boarding , journey and ecosystem maps , ﬂow charts , or simple diagrams , I facilitate the process in which all stakeholders build a shared understanding of the problem at hand in order to collaborate on an optimal solution . 

 Application 

 In working with a client on a new web application , I begin with a discovery process . Sometimes I facilitate a discovery workshop that allows all stakeholders to spend time with our team to build a shared understanding of the problem , and to start co - designing a solution . Activities that are part of a discovery workshop include creating user personas ,   drawing journey maps , ecosystem maps , or story boards . 

 User personas , a tool I use frequently , while not entirely visual ( there is a lot of written information included in them ) , contain one important visual element — a sketch or a photo of a person . Humans have an emotional response to faces of other humans . Having a visual representation of a person ’s face , even if roughly sketched with a few strokes to indicate the eyes and the mouth , allows stakeholder to relate to the user for whom they ’re building a product . Personas are , in my opinion , empathy building tools that can transform how stakeholders approach the problem at hand . 

 Drawing and viewing a graphic representation of a user ’s ecosystem or a journey the user travels in life while encountering and interacting with the product or service gives all stakeholders an opportunity to take a step back , assess their own understanding of the ecosystem within which they ’re building a product , exchange insights , and build a shared understanding with the team that will be building the product . No written requirements documents share the breadth and depth of the needed knowledge quite so eﬀectively as visualizing it with tools such journey maps , ecosystem maps , or story boards . Below is an example of an ecosystem map . 

 Insight & Approach 

 Ultimately , I think , it ’s all about visual story - telling . We start talking about the situation at hand ; we tell the story of the people involved and the contexts in which the story occurs . And while doing that , we document the story visually . We draw sketches of the characters , we use symbols to indicate actions . It ’s a simple and powerful way to build a visual representation of all the actors in the story , all the actions they undertake , and all the events they are subject to . 

 Visualization techniques allow us to overcome language barriers ( implicit or explicit ) and to get at the meaning of what we try to convey in a very direct , experiential way . They are also a great way to oﬄoad cognitive eﬀort of trying to keep many moving parts in memory ; instead we visualize the pieces through drawing and diagramming , and we move the pieces around until the visualization represents everyone ’s understanding of the subject matter . 

 Sometimes the greatest challenge is to get participants fully engaged . People who are unaccustomed to visualization techniques may feel inadequate and shy about getting up and drawing . I ’d like to experiment with diﬀerent activities and ways to encourage involvement . Perhaps some simple warm - up exercises could be leveraged at the onset of a workshop to give the participants a taste of what ’s coming . It is also possible that diﬀerent groups will require slightly diﬀerent ratio of visual and verbal story - telling . Maybe at times , instead of insisting on everyone drawing , I could encourage participants to talk , and draw diagrams myself until they feel more comfortable stepping up to pick up the marker . I believe that meeting people where they are is often a more eﬀective way of getting desired outcomes than forcing them out of their comfort zone too soon . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Yareli Thomas
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: The Communicative Power of Visualization 

 Author : Yareli Thomas 

 Challenge 

 As a user experience designer within an organization that builds web applications , I work with a broad range of stakeholders that include 

 clients representing a diverse set of vertical markets , sales and marketing professionals ,   project managers , project owners within an Agile software development framework ,   backend and front - end developers . 

 In order to build successful web applications , we must start by building a shared understanding of the users and their contexts . Often neither written nor spoken language alone is suﬃcient for that to happen across the diverse knowledge domains represented by all stakeholders . 

 Visualization is a perfect tool that allows me to translate concepts across disciplines without losing the fundamental meaning to the jargon of each represented profession . By leveraging story boarding , journey and ecosystem maps , ﬂow charts , or simple diagrams , I facilitate the process in which all stakeholders build a shared understanding of the problem at hand in order to collaborate on an optimal solution . 

 Application 

 In working with a client on a new web application , I begin with a discovery process . Sometimes I facilitate a discovery workshop that allows all stakeholders to spend time with our team to build a shared understanding of the problem , and to start co - designing a solution . Activities that are part of a discovery workshop include creating user personas ,   drawing journey maps , ecosystem maps , or story boards . 

 User personas , a tool I use frequently , while not entirely visual ( there is a lot of written information included in them ) , contain one important visual element — a sketch or a photo of a person . Humans have an emotional response to faces of other humans . Having a visual representation of a person ’s face , even if roughly sketched with a few strokes to indicate the eyes and the mouth , allows stakeholder to relate to the user for whom they ’re building a product . Personas are , in my opinion , empathy building tools that can transform how stakeholders approach the problem at hand . 

 Drawing and viewing a graphic representation of a user ’s ecosystem or a journey the user travels in life while encountering and interacting with the product or service gives all stakeholders an opportunity to take a step back , assess their own understanding of the ecosystem within which they ’re building a product , exchange insights , and build a shared understanding with the team that will be building the product . No written requirements documents share the breadth and depth of the needed knowledge quite so eﬀectively as visualizing it with tools such journey maps , ecosystem maps , or story boards . Below is an example of an ecosystem map . 

 Insight & Approach 

 Ultimately , I think , it ’s all about visual story - telling . We start talking about the situation at hand ; we tell the story of the people involved and the contexts in which the story occurs . And while doing that , we document the story visually . We draw sketches of the characters , we use symbols to indicate actions . It ’s a simple and powerful way to build a visual representation of all the actors in the story , all the actions they undertake , and all the events they are subject to . 

 Visualization techniques allow us to overcome language barriers ( implicit or explicit ) and to get at the meaning of what we try to convey in a very direct , experiential way . They are also a great way to oﬄoad cognitive eﬀort of trying to keep many moving parts in memory ; instead we visualize the pieces through drawing and diagramming , and we move the pieces around until the visualization represents everyone ’s understanding of the subject matter . 

 Sometimes the greatest challenge is to get participants fully engaged . People who are unaccustomed to visualization techniques may feel inadequate and shy about getting up and drawing . I ’d like to experiment with diﬀerent activities and ways to encourage involvement . Perhaps some simple warm - up exercises could be leveraged at the onset of a workshop to give the participants a taste of what ’s coming . It is also possible that diﬀerent groups will require slightly diﬀerent ratio of visual and verbal story - telling . Maybe at times , instead of insisting on everyone drawing , I could encourage participants to talk , and draw diagrams myself until they feel more comfortable stepping up to pick up the marker . I believe that meeting people where they are is often a more eﬀective way of getting desired outcomes than forcing them out of their comfort zone too soon .
### Output: 