"How To" Visual



In creating this "how to" visual I was trying to effectively communicate a process to someone without the use of words.  The goal was to clearly describe how to make a spaghetti dinner. I began with using common symbols for the materials and ingredients needed. For the spaghetti I used a common colored blue box with a window. Instead of trying to come up with a common label for the sauce I used an icon of a tomato and red jar. Pots and pans can look very similar so I used different shapes and handles to make it easier for the audience to distinguish between them. I used a stove to how to cook the pasta. I thought this would also help if the background, the stove, remained the same because it would be easier to follow the changes. To show the order of events I used green arrows. For the time involved in waiting for the pasta to cook I drew the symbol of a stop sign along with change in time on clocks. It was difficult to show order when thinking about how differently cultures are use to reading. While making the diagram I had my “AHA” moment when I found myself constantly trying to use words. I didn’t realized how heavily I relied on written instructions when following a process to do something. At the same time I rely on images to clarify things for me. The combination of words and images makes things much more clear rather than using one or the other. “How to make a spaghetti dinner” seems like a simple thing to describe, but when using a visual without words I realized how many little steps there are that can be difficult to show through words. Visuals have to be very carefully created to reach audiences in an effective manner.