Making the Abstract Concrete

How might we use visual communication design to make abstract concepts more concrete?

11 min readOct 1, 2019

As designers, we are often tasked with visualizing concepts that haven't been realized yet or communicate complex and abstract ideas.

This post will look at communication strategies and the elements of design to translate a complex topic into effective communication. I will be looking at the topic — IMPEACHMENT.

Week 1: Abstraction in Design

When you are exposed to topics that are difficult to grasp — what do you notice? Where do you get confused? What else do you need to understand or grok the topics?

Framing your topic to understanding things quickly — concision (concise) — without dumbing it down is an important skill for designers. Some questions that will help me under

Mood: What type of mood do you want to create? What is an appropriate voice to communicate the message?
Forms: What forms are appropriate to communicate for the audience.
Time: when is it important to slow things down and speed things up? What needs to be removed or included without losing clarity

Reflections on the examples from class:

Chris —Taking Sexier Sushi photos:
Taking better photos explains the photos. Explains camera settings

the narrative of taking sushi photos — creates context make makes it memorable. Didn’t feel like a how-to.
3 different scenarios within the broader concept
juxtaposed image and infographics
multiple channels — visual, audio (narration and ambient), motion
mood: casual and humorous, it was easy to resonate, the awkward stare, the whirly ball — feels more human
“Just show it” and “comparison” from napkin sketch

“How will I write this in a way that will resonate with the audience”

Andrea — Graph theory:
Explaining graph theory through paper drawings of networks

shortest path algorithm
Repetition, easy to make a comparison when only small things change
style — translates a topic is that it dry and tech-heavy and makes it engaging and accessible.

“Where do you want to place your effort” — what forms do you use that communicate? Or does the form just become decoration…?

Susana: Bread making — how yeast work
Explaining how bread making happens through filming the process.

The instructional video sets the context of the video. The choice of medium is considered with the audience in mind.
uses metaphor to explain yeast processes as “monsters”

When do you extend or reduce time for more effective communication?

Dixon — inflation & deflation
Using icons to explain the complex concept of inflation and deflation.

started with a simple human story to explain a wider concept
use simple abstract shapes and focus on movement and scale and gestalt to show changes and convey a lot of meanings
the tone and colors and background music made a drab topic more watchable and engaging and accessible.
Napkin sketching — quantity, comparisons between two sides, comparisons over time,

“What are the critical points that need to be communicated?”

Lorraine — Aurora
Using motion and music to create a specific feeling while explaining the science behind an aurora.

ambient music emphasizes the feeling
visual effect matched the visceral reaction you get when seeing an aurora
continuity in the visuals through transitions
using light to explain the concept of light.
the pace- is slow to convey other feelings about the aurora.

“What feelings does the topic evoke? “
“What are appropriate forms for the topic?

Exploring Representation and Icon

Let’s look at some examples from more representational to abstract — Cat, Happy, Connection, Disruption.

Cat —

commonalities — whiskers, tail, pointy ears
categories — just faces, meows, whole-body (fronts and profile view),

What are the characteristics they help everyone identify the thing?
Prototype — is the best example to represent something. (initial reading — schema, prototype vs schema)

Stylistically, the details of limbs could be simplified and still represent the object

Happy—

As you get closer to the abstract, the prototype is harder to decern.

When does a metaphor get “too literal”?

How do you represent happy to abstract shapes?

Connected—

key properties: things touching, lines and nodes
groupings: nodes and networks, human connectedness, device connectedness,

Symbols vs. representations: how you use the form to communicate

Disrupted-

descriptive words help to hone in on the prototype. eg: zigzig, breaking, messy/controlled, separation
change in state — we can do this through pattern and continuity

Disruption is an idea, not an object. The more contexts for the word to exist and so there is subjective interpretation.

Think about the nature of the word/thing you want to represent. Can it be done statically or need motion? Do we need processes? Do you need a change in state?

Week 2: Understanding the topic

→ LEARNING

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics

Chapter 2:

Emphasis — what are you emphasizing?
Abstraction is a spectrum of representation
Cartoons help you see yourself when it is more abstracted — using imagination to fill in the blanks
Where is the sweet spot? (too simple, too complex— hard to decipher the meaning)
Culture plays a role in design decisions, for example — color (in India equates to marriage, but white means marriage
Icon vs Text: Text needs to be learned, icon — the language doesn't need to be learned.

Chapter 3: Blood in the Gutters

Engage the audience — how do you create something that doesn’t have everything spelled out but uses the imagination of the viewer to complete the picture?
Additive and Deductive aspect of the story

From Understanding Comics — Scott McCloud

Transition: when there is a change in state.
Examples:
1. Blinking
2. Dance
3. Football (Player shoots goal, crowd cheers)
4. House to store
5. Passage of time — child to adult
6. Noodles and socks!
How do you transition from one frame to another?
Transition aspects: Scale, Position, Value (Appear/Disappear)

Don Norman, Things That Make Us Start

Appropriateness Principle: Matching the representation to the context
Representing World vs. Represented World

CHANNELS

VISUAL — Storyboarding the sequence

MOTION — Transitions, Movement, Scale/Position/Value changes

AUDIO — Narration, Ambient, Sound effects

Impeachment

First sketch:
Impeachment is a topical issue. There is a lot of rhetoric around the topic currently in the news as Nancy Pelosi — the current speaker of the House of Representatives in the U.S. Congress has launched a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump. I’ve been looking at various sources such as articles, videos and podcasts to under the process of impeachment. This is my initial sketch summary that outlines the 2-part process:

Feedback from listeners:

The use of jargon or legalese confused my listeners and even the use of words like “removed from office”
They liked how the actors were defined, ie, who can be impeached.
Anything that looked like a list was interpreted as linear, eg. the impeachment inquiry/review process.
Articles of Impeachment and the process of issuing them were not clear.
One listener wanted to know how many representatives are in the Senate and House of Representatives and how their vote matters with regard to the majority.
The Judge & Jury of the trial were not clear.
It was not evident that only one charge needed a vote to impeach a president.
There could be more emphasis on the start of the impeachment process. How does it come to be in the first place?
They liked the inclusion of private citizens and their role in influencing an impeachment.
Zooming in and out on my iPad helped my listener see the bigger picture.

Week 3: Style and Story

Based on the feedback received I’ve created a storyboard that tells the story of the process of impeachment in a linear way. This is what I noticed during the process of storyboarding:

First attempt at the storyboard and possible motion of the different scenes.

There are certain scenes that can be visually repeated as the 2-step process involves mini-processes that follow similar steps eg: debating — voting — outcome.
I want the storyline to have a circular ending, which means the start and the end link up — ending with the public.
There are many binaries in the story — prosecutor vs defense, voting yes/no, House vs Senate, convicted vs acquited.
There are a lot of directional elements in the process — for example, going from the House to the Senate, from indictment to trial, senate coming together, debates…etc. The direction could inform the motion for these scenes.

Style and Moodboard:

The style and mood of the motiongraphic are really important to communicate a certain tone. I looked at recent presidential campaign graphics and political art posters from the 20th century to inform my chosen style. After looking at several examples of graphic styles and motion, I’ve narrowed down the visual style to these keywords:

Impactful & Bold
Smart & Serious
American

For my moodboard exploration, I landed on a strong and bold style focusing on American colors — Red and Blue. The use of flat colors and bold condensed font that evokes feelings of

→ The Script (focusing on how impeachment works)

→ Initial Storyboard based on Script

Feedback from Stacie and Brett

Constrain yourself from using text. Because you have a narration, you don’t necessarily need text.
Sketch out the conceptual constructs — what are the actions that need to be described? How do you focus on what is triggering it?
The visual style is looking good. But are you using style just for fluff/fashion or to communicate the concept. Is the graphic style and motion going to be distracting?
Think about the different ways “motion” of something can be communicated. For example, split-screen comparison or the thing stays stationary and the background moves.

Next steps:
Continue visualizing the more complex features of the script/how it works
Do a rough voice over to look at pacing
Rewrite script? Add more detail.

Week 4: Tweaking and Refinement

What have I done to date? Why?

I looked more closely at my script after peer feedback to understand which aspects need to be updated or rephrased.
Taken sample recordings of my script to understand how long the narration takes and where pauses could be beneficial.
Re-looked at my storyboard and visuals to assess which aspects need more attention to represent the concepts more clearly.

What have you learned and discovered?

From peer feedback on the script, I learned the script was largely logical and direct and to the point. The challenge will be to make it more interesting through the visuals. I could play with tone of voice and background music to make the video more impactful.
Visually, I need to play more with the ideas of abstraction and motion to address the more complex aspects of the script. For example, moving from impeachment to trial and from trial to conviction. More refinement is needed here in the script and video.
The trial voice recording was between 2m 50s, which is about enough time for the video if pauses are included.

What do you plan to do next?

Refinement of script
Work on the pacing of the narration
More visual development on tricky aspects of the video — how to represent the senate and house of representatives.
Look into transitions between different sections.

Narrating the Script

Take One —

Visualizing Congress

Visualizing what’s happening

Initial test of motion

Where are you at?

Updated my script.
Focusing on the concept for the more complicated aspects of the story.

Preparation for Peer presentation —

Progress on

Visual form
Hierarchy
Pacing and Motion
Some audio.

Next steps

Show the house committees appear within the semi-circle
Use transparency to transition between the different scenes

Week 5: Towards peer review

I got some feedback on my script from the GCC about the flow of the paragraphs and cohesion. They recommended using the writing technique of the known-new contract where every sentence starts with a reference to the previous sentence. They also recommended specific word changes and grammar changes.

Playing with the visual style and transitions:

“House Committees who examine, discuss and negotiate the accusations and then put forward a list of charges called the “Articles of Impeachment”.”

From Peer feedback:

The simple style is working well
The colors Red/Blue need to be used carefully as they represent
Show voting happening before the simple majority win.
Rework the House Committees to appear from the semi-circle. Maybe, they don’t need to be circles?
The slight echo with the rough recording gives the impression of a chamber — consider this for the final recording.
Animate single dots to show individuals initiating and debating/voting.

Week 6: Towards final refinement

Where am I at? What’s next?

Audio: I got a new recording for my script by a voice-over artist from Fivver this weekend. I like the tone of the recording, but the pace is too fast. As I started to conceptualize the layouts to the recording, I realized the script needs to be edited in a couple of places to slow down the motion. Feedback to the narrator will be sent today for the final recording. I also explored music/audio tracks with little luck. It was also time-consuming. So I’m going to look at this right at the end.

Visuals: I was bothered by the visual of the semi-circle dots not representing the House and Senate accurately. So I found a website that helped export this in the right format and layout. I’ll be replacing this visual in my animation.

Animation: Animation is a bit slow, but having the final audio is important to animate to. I’m still working on how the different pieces navigate out of the frame.

Final learnings

visual styles match the concept or sometimes even taking a different approach adds to engagement of the video!
close alignment with visual and audio — that's when things make sense. When the sound and timing are off, viewers are working harder to grasp the video.
sound effects emphasized key aspects of the video and made the stories more effective
pauses helped the viewer process the information
metaphors are very memorable
visual cues such as things getting smaller or bigger emphasized
breaking things down to explain layers of the concepts
engage different modalities increase the comprehension of complex topics
Setting the stage with the videos
Using storytelling and humor makes content more engaging.