It’s hard to sell something based on intangible words – typically, people like having something to look at, visualize, and understand the product or service. Visuals give a business an edge – they engage the senses and help the business communicate concepts to a customer or a prospect.
Since 90% of the information transmitted by the nerves to the brain is visual, businesses need to capture this sense to derive the prospect’s maximum attention. Converting information into visuals allows all parties to explore the same concepts with their eyes – this becomes particularly useful, especially during discussion and brainstorming phases.
What Are Concepts?
Sounds like a word you’d ideally know the meaning of, right? But have you ever thought about what a concept is?
As per the English dictionary, concepts are abstract ideas. They allow people to publicize or sell products and services. A concept helps lay the foundation for beliefs, principles, and thoughts and will enable people to cultivate a general idea about what they want to derive from a situation. For example, suppose an interior decorator is required to work on a project where they need to renovate a living room. In that case, they will first try to understand the concept – whether the living room needs to follow a modern and minimal design or a contemporary one. This concept is the broader idea based on which the decorator will generate specific ideas.
What is Concept Visualization?
Now that we’ve understood what concepts are, it’s time to delve into concept visualization. As the term suggests, concept visualization is the art of taking a concept and communicating it effectively through visuals. It involves creating images and visuals that can take an intangible idea and portray it tangibly.
Concept visualization has become increasingly important for many things – from creating realistic prototypes of objects to depicting interactions within systems and developing visual metaphors for services; this is a modern method of creating a physical environment that a prospect, buyer, or third party can quickly relate to / gauge / understand.
When it comes to professional development and evolution, data-driven insights help formulate actionable strategies. This allows businesses to implement and execute valuable initiatives to generate a larger revenue and become more strategic in their approach. However, reading digital data is not easy, particularly if the data is not presented in a visually appealing manner. This data can provide astute insights. However, it needs to be presented in a clear, digestible, and inspiring format so every individual – not just someone who can understand and analyze graphical charts and data, can read and consume it easily. Visualization essentially helps improve the speed at which an individual registers information. Some companies like Netflix use social media listening to get correct data and insights.
Creating visual communications and concepts can be a challenging task, especially when the information to be presented is non-quantitative. Quantitative data can be represented through charts, graphs, and numerical concepts. However, this too may be tough for some people to read, analyze and understand. Concept visualization occurs when categories, themes, emotions, structures, processes, and other conceptual ideas are concretized and presented in a visually understandable format.
Concept visualization takes on the role of illustrating ideas and abstract concepts through visual formats. These visual formats may be influenced by language, culture, or historical references. Concept visualization typically has three aspects: using examples, depicting information in line with the times, and adopting cultural sensitivity.
Benefits of Concept Visualization
Businesses use visual metaphors to explain concepts and get through to their prospects and clients. In a world where ‘show’ works better than ‘tell’, most companies try to use advertisements, images, posts, and billboards to depict the use cases associated with their products and services to entice prospects and customers. Here’s a simple example – organic food brands use advertisements and images to show their customers where their produce is coming from, why they should consume it, what the product contains etc., as opposed to simply telling their customers these things via written content. Cosmetic brands endorse products through celebrities and influencers because they want people to visually conceptualize the idea behind the product and how well it can benefit a consumer.
Here’s a breakdown of the benefits of concept visualization –
1. Easily Convey Information:
As stated earlier, concept visualization is a great way for businesses to convey information both internally to their employees . As well as externally to their customers and prospects. It’s a method that allows a company to articulate data and abstract information in a more compelling and optimized way. Using words along with visuals will further help convey information clearly and cover any doubts that might not be visually represented.
2. Easy to Understand:
Communication is a two-way street. Simply giving out information is not enough if the person on the receiving end cannot understand it. Concept visualization makes it easier for the person on the receiving end of the information to digest and process the information efficiently. Using a visual hierarchy to communicate the most important points first and accentuate data . It makes it easier for those receiving it to grasp essential points quickly.
3.Process Voluminous Data:
Concept visualization encompasses data visualization. This method of repurposing data into easily understandable visual elements is a great way to process and truncate voluminous data and present it easily.
4.Allows for Easier Decision-Making:
A great benefit of concept visualization is that this method helps companies take data and derive actionable insights in a simplified manner. It makes the overall decision-making process more manageable. Since most companies rely on heavy volumes of data in their daily operations and require many hands on deck for approvals . When it comes to making quick decisions, it is easier to present data and concepts through simple visuals. This cuts down the time taken to explore the information and make a decision collectively. However, to make this exercise fruitful, stakeholders must decide which parts of the gathered information need to be executed. Then that is presented in a visual format to make the decision-making process effective and faster.
5.Trend Identification:
Through concept visualization, viewers can identify relationships and patterns. This helps them discover the latest trends and derive actionable insights based on such information. Visual data is much easier to perceive and understand, making the trend identification process much swifter.
4.Useful for Engagement:
Whether a company is looking to engage people externally or internally, concept visualization is a great tool to encourage that. Companies can efficiently deliver more impactful results by engaging with clients and employees through images and visuals.
Final Words
Companies and businesses around the world need concept visualization as they evolve. This method allows an enterprise to take abstract ideas and convert them into tangible and valuable products or services. Conceptual visualization is a manner of communicating information more effectively such that it reaches the right ears (and eyes). The intended target audience can easily retrieve the information from their memory. For example, ever wondered why companies spend so much money on perfecting their logos and brand image? It’s because the image sells more than the product or the service itself.
In today’s world, brand value is everything. A brand’s image is what helps it elevate its status and leverage its price point in the market. When customers get an opportunity to visualize a concept given to them by a company or a brand. They can short-hand the idea easily and understand the intended meaning or purpose of the same. Concept visualization is quickly picking up, especially in the day and age of social media, where the image is everything. To summarize, concept visualization is a great way to explain ideas and concepts through tangible design, graphs and charts, and other visually appealing ways. so the target audience feels compelled enough to understand and make a decision. From usefulness to appeal, concept visualization has indeed been a game-changer in the product design world.
Ready to bring your intangible ideas to life through tangible concepts? Browse to read more about concepts like concept visualization and other similar themes.
Featured Image Courtesy: Pixabay
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