In a world of social media, emojis and doodles – the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” could not be more true.
As humankind evolves and the world becomes more connected and complex, most humans still effectively consume information visually; approximately 65 percent to be exact. This ingrained human behavior highlights the importance of delivering a message simply, emotionally and effectively. At Parsons, we’re tapping into this human capacity for visual processing to enrich the customer experience and encourage creative problem-solving through a process known as “Graphic Recording.”
What Is Graphic Recording?
Graphic Recording is the practice of synthesizing real-time content – like presentations, conversations, meetings- into hand-drawn text and images, usually in a largescale format, to simplify a complex topic into a visual story.
How Does Graphic Recording Provide Value?
- It boosts participant information retention through the creation of a visually-anchored experiential memory of the discussion, increasing information stickiness.
- It generates a visually-based record of the topics that were actually discussed and can be used live during an event as a method of reference to those conversations.
- It lifts the creative spirit in the room, paving the way for new and different questions and ideas. Graphic recording is a visual interpretation of verbal content and, as such, prompts new questions and conversations.
- The visual language is particularly helpful when customers want to generate clarity around ambiguous challenges: “Did you mean this? Let’s collect our ideas. Help me see your meaning.” Graphic recording equalizes all participants’ contributions and allows for a more neutral exploration of a problem set.
- Graphic recording is a visually engaging
reference for use after an event.
- Our Visioneers digitize their wall-sized art to be re-used in websites, infographics, and presentations.
- Some customers hang the graphic recordings in their team rooms, like wallpaper, as a persistent reminder of the energy, conversations, and progress made that day.
Understanding The Immersive Engineering Methodology
Graphic Recording is one of many tools Parsons uses for creative problem solving – the Immersive Engineering methodology. While our skilled graphic recorders observe, listen, and synthesize stakeholder contributions into visuals that reveal connections and reduce ambiguity, they also apply facilitation and high-performance team techniques, human-centered design methodologies, and other types of strategic visualization to spark innovation, foster collaboration, build stronger teams, and advance creative problem-solving.
These practices are central to Parsons’ culture. We apply effective leading creative practices to myriad challenges, helping customers find the right solutions to hard problems.