Silly.
Talking about images is silly.
Everyone at the table has something different in their mind, and you need an enormous amount of words, pictorial, descriptive words, to make everyone’s ideas clear to everyone else.
If you want to talk about images, you have to collect images. Simply, with Google, or by taking pictures of an exhibit you do like, or using a movie still from Spiderman. Or by sketching.
Oh, you can’t draw?
All the better. A non-pretty sketch invites more participation than a professional sketch. It’s a thing with little people and houses, or a bunch of rectangles with words in them and arrows in between. It doesn’t have to be on an iPad Pro, it can be on that blank envelope over there. With the janitor’s bic, a sharpie is not necessary.
Invite
And then suddenly it’s a talking piece, or the briefing for the infographic creator, or proof that the compromise proposal that’s been agreed upon cannot work.
Moreover, it is a thing that invites. It’s just pen on paper, and so anyone can scribble something on it. Without logging in.
Yes, it’s okay to work in Miro, as long as you sketch.
Get rid of non-commitment
So I will bring paper and markers to our first meeting and start sketching as soon as you talk. The sketch immediately removes the non-committal. You talk directly about the sketch, realizing that your idea or plan is not quite right, thanks to the sketch. Then we’ll improve it until we get there.
Super effective.
Talking about images: an outline for an animation. There are two players talking about a building. That building has features and specifications. A subtitle can be placed at the bottom of the screen.
Folding sheet for a nature area. A lake, with a route around it, and information attached to it. So simple, it’s almost a pancake restaurant placemat.
Sketch for National Geographic, about fish migration. So yes, there are fish, multiple species, and waterways, and blockages. There are also three types of solutions: a fish ladder, a lock with holes and a fish passage. Like that. Well we have all our ducks in a row.
Four signs about meadow birds, about eating, breeding, migrating and growing up. You immediately see what fits on it. The Word document (4240 words) can now be discarded by everyone.
Also “talking about images”: a wall on which to track the progress of a sizable report. You can walk right over, talk about it together, and put an arrow somewhere.
