Sunni Brown » Visual Thinking

Zappos Insights Bootcamp – Las Vegas, NV 2010

Sunni — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:20:51 +0000

I was absolutely impressed with the Zappos Insights Bootcamp. It’s a 2-day workshop designed to expose people to their famous culture – the values that drive it and the people and policies that keep it growing. I was so impressed, in fact, that I’ll write another blog post soon showing the video with interviews from some participants. The images above were the four 32-square-foot murals I created for the group while they were in the workshop. Tony Hsieh, the CEO, and Alfred Lin, the CFO, made presentations during the session and I think people were a little bit starstruck. The Zappos guys have officially reached celebrity status, but they remain humble. One principle I took away from the session (among many) was that hubris gets you nowhere, quickly. More to come.

Hawai’i Public Radio – Bytemarks Cafe

Sunni — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:35:52 +0000

While in Waikiki, I was invited by Burt Lum – the gracious host of a radio show called Bytemarks Café – to be on Hawai’i Public Radio to discuss the intersection between new technology and visualization. (Not that I’ve even scratched the surface of all the possibilities there, but it’s worth a conversation.) We were joined by instructor and web designer Chris Gargiulo from KCC. Chris and I discussed the process of designing for the audience’s experience and our personal insight into good design principles (and what I unfortunately referred to on-air as “fugly” design principles). We had callers ask about PowerPoint – one teacher said her school’s design specs require the use of blue text on a yellow background (what?!) – and others discussed some of the challenges of thinking through good design. To catch the audio file, Listen here. If you only want to hear my contribution, start at 19:56. Thank you for listening. Good night, and Good Luck.

Listen to it here

Life is Hard Enough Without Visual Thinking

Sunni — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:23:13 +0000

Photo Above: Documented proof of how painful it is to go without the use of visual thinking in your life.

Photo Below: Incontrovertible evidence that when I conduct an Intro to Visual Thinking Workshop, it brings people significant amounts of joy.

Okay, so I jest. I forced my students to express happiness after an 8-hour day of learning visual thinking techniques. But if you ask them, I don’t think they were truly coerced. Click on the photo to see pictures of them in action and my assertion that they were enjoying themselves will be more credible. I even had one gentlemen – originally late to class and hiding in the back – have a breakthrough in his willingness to draw at all, much less in front of others. It was one of those moments that, as a facilitator, you live for. Well worth drafting a customized 30-page curriculum. The topics covered in the workshop ranged from shapes, figures, faces and listening techniques to a closing discussion on fairly sophisticated information design (this group moved fast). I would have liked to have someone draw me a diagram on the intricacies of the Hula dance, but we ran out of time.