Grabbing and Keeping their Attention:
We live in a fast paced society where information is at our fingertips and people want information now. Patience is a lost virtue now that most individuals in the western world have at least one digital device on their person at all times. Drawing and infographics (charts, graphs or drawings of some type) play a huge role in communicating information today, either with or without audio to communicate ideas and information.
In lectures and/or presentations, gone are the days of a straight lecture with the speaker standing at a podium presenting information to an audience taking notes. In today’s world, to maintain the attention of the audience, a speaker must show regular video clips, provide actual visuals (via handouts or a Powerpoint), and get audience participation in order to capture their attention. Otherwise, the risk of the information not getting communicated is quite high. The majority of people learn and understand information better with visuals.
Drawing is essentially the technology of providing information in a visual format to improve comprehension. Drawing is a form of infographics which is the larger subset of the many types of graphics which can be utilized to communicate information.
In my experience working as a dietitian and then for the government for many years, I learned quickly that if you don’t give presentations with infographics, you will lose the audience. Even in one-on-one briefings or educational meetings, if there is a lot of information to present, pictures tell a thousand words. Research reflects that people get lost in words, but have a better time with pictures and will remember the information if it is provided in pictures, drawings, graphs, etc.