I recently got to hear Bill Whyman, a professional ‘futurist’ (not to be confused with Bill Wyman, the bassist for the Rolling Stones) talk about the methods behind the impossible task of predicting the future.
One of my favorite excerpts from his talk was when he said that he “likes to use pictures” to visualize information.
“If I can’t draw it, I can’t understand it. And if I can’t understand it, I’ll never have the chance to communicate it. And if I can’t communicate it, then I won’t get any impact.”
I was inspired when he said this because I’m particularly interested in and passionate about information presentation. I was impressed and encouraged that a futurist disconnected from the journalism and media industries like Bill Whyman believes in the power and importance of visual communication.
Whyman demonstrated how he makes complicated information easier to understand when he showed us the visual comparison he made of three software industries. The comparison he showed us was a very detailed map of the former ‘battle’ between the Java programming architecture, Microsoft’s .NET programming architecture, and Open Source. At first glance, the map looked like a graphical drawing of a couple of mountain ranges and a river. But I thought he did a great job explaining the metaphor of the giant programming industries as mountains covering a range of fields, with rivers as barriers for some crossing-over. I thought this was very effective way to display a comparison of the three industries. I could see all of the thought that went into his visual representation of all of that data he had and was largely impressed by how all of those details enabled him and his firm to correctly predict the success of Microsoft.
Whyman was right on the money when he said, “When you’re predicting the future, you’re telling a story – and you have to have impact and make it compelling.”
His map was interesting and compelling, and accurately represented what he knew about those industries at that time. Being able to present complicated information and data in a way that will be easy to understand makes it easier to make inferences and predict possible outcomes.
I liked that he emphasized trial and error and thinking outside of the box in order to map out certain possibilities. Looking for different angles, breaking things down and iterating is something I actively try to do as a visual journalist looking for ways to creatively, yet effectively inform others — so I was encouraged that he stressed the importance of these methods.