In this short clip I discuss 'graphicking'. It was kindly recorded by social media wizz Rich Watts at the Essex Coalition of Disabled Peoples Fulfilling Potential focus group for the UK government's Disability Strategy held on 28th Feb 2012.

Graphicking involves pens, big pieces of paper and people. Also known as graphic recording or facilitation, when used at meetings and events it can enable innovative thinking and effective communication between individuals and groups. It encourages people to be dynamic and think about information in pictures. This supports better engagement with topics by creating accessible visual summaries that are quick to digest.

Typically how it works is that a graphicker attends the meeting or event and, on big bits of paper draws what people are saying, capturing the mood and themes arising. If the graphicker is facilitating the event, they will encourage participants to draw with them and contribute to the image by engaging them in activities and tasks. At the end of the event the graphicker will talk through the image and summarise the content of the day. The image produced can then be used as a record of the event.

Ultimately graphicking is a participatory and inclusive method for presenting and capturing ideas and information visually in real time. Being low tech and low cost, people can get involved easily and shape the debate visually. This then gives people a sense of ownership in the information and lifts meaning off the lined paper into shared understanding.

Drawing on picture thinking, mind mapping and gamestorming graphicking encourages the visual processing of information through parts of the brain that are emotional and creative. This allows for information to be organised in intuitive and simultaneous ways, thus improving understanding and memory.

This also relates to an emerging concept of 'graphicacy'. Different to literacy and numeracy, this is concerned with how people interpret and generate graphical information. As technological developments allow for information to be visualised more creatively, information communication no longer relies soley on words and numbers to convey meaning. Graphical communication can simplify and improve the presentation of information and concepts. If meaning can be exchanged easier between people, the understanding of it is improved.

Graphicking promotes effective communication. Using creative techniques that value and emphasise the importance of everyone's involvement, it can provide insight for groups by encouraging alternative and creative ways of thinking and engaging with information. It's an accessible, inclusive and participatory method to help people and organisations plan, design, organise and adapt their activities.

While heavily visual, graphicking does not exclude blind and visually impaired people. The method is easily made accessible through text and audio descriptions. Indeed a verbal interpretation of a visual image can reveal additional, perhaps previously unnoticed information and enhance communication of the topic.

While the image is seen as the end result, the process that participants go through to create it is a product in itself. Through participation, graphicking can capture detailed insight of user journey's, experiences of community citizens, research data, and other information. Once visualised, the image summary can be used to inspire infographics, data presentations, easy read documents, shared as a visual record or pinned on the wall in the office as a memory aid and facilitate further debate.

Please contact me to discuss how you might use graphicking in your work.