The ability to communicate clearly is a critical skill in business. The appropriate use of visualisations can provide clarity, emphasise a narrative thread and highlight critical information to key audiences/stakeholders across an organisation.

The 'Visual Approaches' course outlines the fundamental principles of designing visualisations and provides practical guidance on how to apply them in a business/management context. The course includes presentations, small group exercises and plenary feedback discussions in order to explore and apply the principles of visual communication.

The course provides participants with an overview of good and bad practice (including organisational/industrial examples), implementation guidelines, together with the opportunity to share experiences of using visual methods to enhance presentation and decision support. The topics covered include:

  • The purpose of visualisations.

  • Psychology of vision.

  • Perception of spatial proximity, concentration, continuity.

  • Basic visual variables (position, orientation, size, shape, colour, value).

  • Colour associations and set selection, contrast and pop-out effects.

  • Representational form, information architecture and composition layout.

A range of both common and specific graphical forms are presented and discussed, including:

  • Tables, dot plots, line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, bubble charts.

  • Slope charts, bullet graphs, star plots, block/sequence diagrams.

  • Sankey diagrams, tree diagrams, concept maps, visual metaphors.

Feedback from previous corporate delegates:

  • 'A great day, really enjoyed it and learnt a lot' - Arup

  • 'Inspirational and lots of ideas for implementation - BAE Systems

  • 'Good balance between content and practical' - BASF

  • 'Good course' - Dyson

  • 'Very engaging' - GlaxoSmithKline

  • 'Super day' - NHS

  • 'A balanced seminar - scope and detail was good' - Transport for London

Download course brochure (PDF).

Upcoming course dates: No dates currently available (book here).

The 'Visual Approaches' course can also be run as an in-company training event. The material and group activities can be readily adapted to focus on areas of specific interest to companies, and combined with consulting support to rapidly apply and transfer the methods across the organisation. The current range of consulting offerings available include:

  • Design advice and art direction.

  • Visual prototyping (wireframing and templates).

  • Design sprints and design studio practice.

  • Critiques (individual, group, panel, expert).

  • Eye tracking.

Download a sample workshop briefing note and agenda (PDF).