Data visualisation tools can help your clients drill down as well as view bigger perspectives.

Why has Instagram taken off so successfully as a competitor to Facebook?

Because of the power of pictures.

Data visualisation and infographics are now big business and an effective way of promoting creativity and shifting the paradigms of how we frame problems and develop new solutions.

Craig Dowden in Huffington Post explained the power of visuals in his summary of some 1996 Michigan State University research. The study showed superior healing treatment results for a group of laceration patients who received text and cartoon at-home wound instructions compared with their text-only counterparts. Not only did the cartoon-enhanced patient group read the instructions more than the text-only group, they also recalled the material more accurately, and more of them actually followed the wound care instructions!

Visuals, in other words, do more than just make things pretty. They are powerful and effective communication devices that can have potent neural impact.

FSN journalist, Lesley Meall[1] explains that a spectrum of visualisation tools is available for financial professionals. They range from tools that help improve understanding and explanation of complex and large-set data, to product beautification tools that improve the aesthetics of data in order to help motivate its use and application to clients. Data visualisation thus serves multiple purposes. It provides:

• pleasing aesthetics
• functionality; and
• potential for engagement.

These data visualisation tools are not just for the financial professionals either! Tools can be given to clients to let them play with data themselves in visual form and with minimum programming requirements. These client data visualisation tools are being found to encourage clients to both drill down into the data as well as enable them to take more strategic perspectives where they take greater personal ownership for financial decisions. As a result, data visualisation is encouraging clients to make more engaged, better and faster decisions.[2]

Pictures also fire up different parts of the brain to encourage more creativity in the way we think about problems and potential solutions. For financial advisers, drawing pictures with clients may make for some creative problem solving space; together you can explore different ways in which financial problems can be framed and resolved. Not only will you achieve greater connection with your clients, but they are more likely to recall the information you want to convey to them… all because they can literally remember a picture more than a thousand words!

Mind maps (usually linked to one idea), or concept mapping (usually linking multiple ideas), provide one practical example where you can use pictures to inspire new thinking or to illustrate complex or interconnected information. You start with a concept or a picture and then work your way outwards, using colours and lines to connect new ideas that you associate with the original concept. You may want to use these maps to chart stakeholders, create strategic vision summaries, or to make an assessment of risks or assets and liabilities and how they fit within a broader client portfolio. Studies consistently find that mind mapping improves learning and memory recall over traditional techniques such as written summaries. While you may want to use computer mapping technologies, pen and paper can be just as effective.

So next time you are struggling to find a way to communicate some information to your clients or you are bumping up against a challenging financial problem where you cannot seem to make any headway, try grabbing out the crayons and drawing a picture. When it comes to making a LASTING, POWERFUL impression maybe it’s better to add some colour outside the (text) lines!

[1] See: http://www.fsn.co.uk/channel_bi_bpm_cpm/data_visualisation_for_finance_the_next_frontier#.U8Ol2mwo_tQ)

[2] For a list of some available IT data visualisation packages see http://www.fastcodesign.com/3029239/infographic-of-the-day/30-simple-tools-for-data-visualization

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