Glossary of Visual Thinking Terms

Big picture mapping is the visual process of capturing a high-level overview of a complex topic, system, or challenge. It helps teams see connections, spot patterns, and align around shared goals by making the broader context visible and understandable.

Business illustration uses custom visuals to explain complex ideas, strategies, or processes in a clear and engaging way. It supports communication in marketing, training, and internal messaging, helping organisations connect with audiences through hand-drawn or digital imagery.

Design thinking is a creative problem-solving approach that focuses on understanding user needs, generating ideas, and testing solutions. It encourages collaboration, visual exploration, and iterative thinking to tackle complex challenges with empathy and innovation.

An explainer video is a short, engaging video that simplifies and explains a product, service, or idea using visuals, narration, and animation. It helps audiences quickly understand key messages, making it ideal for marketing, training, and internal communication.

A graphic facilitator combines graphic recording with group facilitation, using live visuals to guide discussions, spark collaboration, and help teams align. They don't just draw what's said—they support the process, making ideas clearer and decisions more effective through visual thinking.

Graphic harvesting, aka, graphic recording focuses on visually capturing the insights and reflections of a group. Often used in participatory or community settings, it transforms shared ideas into meaningful visuals that reflect the collective voice of the event.

Graphic recording is the real-time visual capture of spoken content at events, workshops, or meetings. A graphic recorder listens actively and draws key ideas using words, images, and symbols, creating a large-scale visual map that helps teams see, remember, and act on what's been discussed.

An infographic is a visually designed graphic that combines text, images, and data to present complex information in a simple, engaging format. Infographics help audiences understand key insights quickly, making them ideal for marketing, education, and internal communications.

Internal communications refers to the strategies and tools organisations use to share information with employees. Effective internal communication builds alignment, supports change, and engages teams—often enhanced through visuals like infographics or graphic recording.

Live scribing is the real-time drawing of key ideas during events, meetings, or talks. Otherwise known as graphic recording, it transforms spoken content into visual summaries, helping audiences engage with and remember important messages as they happen.

Live visual note-taking is the real-time creation of hand-drawn notes that blend images and text to capture key ideas as they're spoken. Closely related to graphic recording, it helps audiences follow complex discussions with visuals that clarify and summarise important messages.

A rich picture is a free-form, hand-drawn visual that shows the relationships, challenges, and dynamics within a complex system. Often used alongside graphic recording, rich pictures help teams see the "big picture" and uncover insights through visual storytelling.

Road mapping is the visual planning of goals, actions, and milestones over time. It helps teams align on strategy, clarify priorities, and track progress. Road maps turn complex plans into clear, visual timelines that support decision-making and communication.

Sketchnoting is a personal form of visual note-taking that blends simple sketches, icons, and text to capture key ideas. While similar to graphic recording, sketchnoting is usually done individually, helping improve focus, learning, and memory during talks or workshops.

Strategic communication is the purposeful use of messaging to achieve business goals, aligning what is said with what needs to be done. It helps organisations communicate clearly with stakeholders, supporting change, engagement, and alignment through planned, effective dialogue.

Strategy mapping is the visual representation of an organisation's goals, initiatives, and key actions. It helps teams align on strategy by showing how different objectives connect, making complex plans clearer and easier to communicate and execute.

Systems thinking is a way of understanding complex challenges by seeing how parts connect and influence each other within a whole. It helps teams visualise relationships, patterns, and feedback loops, enabling smarter, more holistic decision-making.

Virtual graphic recording is the live visual capture of online meetings, webinars, or virtual events. Using digital tools, a graphic recorder illustrates key ideas in real-time, helping remote participants stay engaged and making discussions more memorable and accessible.

Visioning is a creative and strategic process where individuals or teams imagine and define their ideal future. Often supported by visual tools, visioning helps clarify long-term goals, inspire alignment, and guide decision-making towards a shared purpose.

Visual facilitation uses hand-drawn visuals—created live or in advance—to guide group discussions, clarify thinking, and support collaboration. Often combined with graphic recording, it helps teams see connections, align around ideas, and make more effective decisions.

Visual harvesting, aka, graphic recording/ graphic harvesting focuses on visually capturing the insights and reflections of a group. Often used in participatory or community settings, it transforms shared ideas into meaningful visuals that reflect the collective voice of the event.

Visual minutes are hand-drawn summaries of meetings or events, combining images, icons, and concise text to highlight key points and decisions. Created live through graphic recording, they make discussions more memorable and easier to share than traditional written notes.

Visual note-taking is the practice of capturing spoken ideas using images, symbols, and text to create engaging, easy-to-remember notes. Often used alongside graphic recording, it helps simplify complex information and improves focus, understanding, and retention during events or meetings.

Virtual graphic recording is the live visual capture of online meetings, webinars, or virtual events. Using digital tools, a graphic recorder illustrates key ideas in real-time, helping remote participants stay engaged and making discussions more memorable and accessible.

Visual storytelling is the art of conveying ideas, messages, or narratives through images, symbols, and design. It helps engage audiences emotionally and intellectually, making information more relatable, memorable, and impactful across presentations, videos, and live events.

Visual thinking is the process of using drawings, diagrams, and imagery to explore, understand, and communicate ideas. It helps individuals and teams see patterns, clarify complexity, and spark creative problem-solving by making abstract thoughts visible.