It’s common for people going into a visual thinking workshop to worry that they can’t draw. And at first glance, it may well look like drawing is a big part of visual thinking. But the truth is that anyone who can draw letters and numbers has all the skills they need to be an effective visual communicator.
That’s because visual communication relies on creating simple elements quickly, which can be difficult for people who are used to creating complicated images. In a sense, they have to learn how not to draw, while those who never thought they could draw in the first place can plunge right in.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that artists can’t learn to simplify and non-artists can’t learn to make their charts look better. Visual thinking, whatever your starting point, improves with, practice. But barely being able to draw a stick figure is certainly no barrier to becoming a visual thinker. It might even be an advantage.