Visual Design and Visual Communication

Format

Two remote sessions (via Zoom), the first on December 7 and the second on December 14, 2023, at 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM Eastern Time (check time in your timezone). These will be supplemented with optional prework, inter-session work, and afterwork including videos, readings, and discussion thereof.

Overview

The use of the visual in supporting cognitive and collaborative work is powerful and yet too often underutilized even in design focused areas such as product, systems and architecture design, but also in technical leadership. This workshop will draw on theory and include practice, and topics include:

• Increasing our observation and perception skills: what helps; what gets in the way
• Supporting cognitive work: expressing thought visually
• Expressing thought visually: abstraction, metaphor, tips
• Drawing, to draw in, and draw out: supporting collaboration
• "I see what you mean": visual communication and persuasion
• Visual modeling in visual design
• Seeing systems: concepts, models and practice

We don't have required reading for this class, but we will share plenty of recommended reading in various related areas. We use a Slack workspace for the workshop for async conversation, and the class sessions are extended with (optional) office hours. The class materials further extend the discourse.

We will also have an opportunity to join a daily Advent(ure) in Systems Journaling peer group, to encourage each other and share ideas.

Audience: Software and systems architects and others who are focused on product and system design. Engineering managers and other technical leaders working on and within complex sociotechnical systems.

Outside the US/Canada/EU/UK: Please contact us for purchase parity pricing and scholarship options

Instructor: Ruth Malan

More information: https://www.ruthmalan.com/Bredemeyer/VisualDesignMasterclassOverview.htm