Making a TED-Ed Lesson: Visualizing big ideas

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/making-a-ted-ed-lesson-visualizing-big-ideas
View original lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/exploration-on-the-big-data-frontier-tim-smith

How can animation convey complex, intangible concepts? A visual metaphor, or an idea represented through imagery, can take an idea as massive as Big Data and tie it to the familiar depiction of a growing tree. TED-Ed animators explain how to make an abstract idea come alive visually.

Do you ever struggle to find the perfect description

when trying to convey an idea?

Like a foggy picture,

adjectives and modifiers fail to depict

what's in your mind.

Illustrators often face a similar challenge,

especially when attempting to explain

complex and difficult concepts.

Sometimes the imagery is intangible

or way too complicated to explain with a picture.

Although complex information could be relayed

using charts and stats,

this could get pretty boring.

Instead, just like when writing an essay

to describe, for example, emotions,

illustrators can use visual metaphors

to bring to life difficult concepts.

Just as a written metaphor is a description

that relates one object to another,

a visual metaphor uses imagery to suggest

a particular association or point of similarity.

Our lesson "Big Data" is a great example

of a situation where visual metaphors

played a huge role in explaining the concept.

What is Big Data in the first place?

Good question!

Big Data is a huge amount of digital information

produced worldwide on a daily basis,

challenging us to find solutions

for storing,

analyzing,

and also imagining it visually.

Quite an elusive concept!

How should we depict this?

Let's take a look at our "Big Data" script.

We start with smaller computer servers

that branch out into bigger networks

to produce data,

then even bigger networks

and production of even more data.

You see where we're going with this --

an object growing and branching out in many directions

and producing something as a result?

Does that remind you of something?

Just like those computer networks,

a tree grows and branches out

to produce more leaves each year.

And every year, just as the data accumulates

and faces us with a challenge

to find storage solutions,

it gets harder to collect those piles of leaves

when they fall off the tree.

Aha! There's our visual metaphor!

Okay, so we have the script,

audio,

and a visual metaphor.

The next step in visual development

is to design the characters

and environments of the animation.

To do so, we think

of an appropriate and appealing style

to illustrate the ideas

and help the viewer better understand

what they're hearing.

Let's go back to the script

and see if we can find any clues there.

Our story starts in the 1960s

when the first computer networks were built.

This decade will serve as a good point

to make the stylistic choice for our animation

as it will allow us to refer to artwork

from that era.

You may want to start

by looking at some art books

(design, illustrations, cartoons, etc.)

from that era

and find a style that may our own purpose.

Look closely,

study the material,

and try to understand the choices

artists of that time made and why.

For example, the 1960s minimalist animation style

was a significant departure

from the cinematic realism

that was popular in animated films at the time.

The choice to use limited animation techniques

was originally made for budgetary reasons,

but it became a signature style

that influenced many future generations of animators.

In this stylistic approach,

the simplified characters,

flat backgrounds,

and angular shapes come together

to create new interpretations of reality,

which also sounds like a good place

to begin visualizing our own Big Data.

Well, let's try an experiment.

"In the 1980s islands of similar networks

speaking different dialects

sprung up all over Europe and the States,

making remote access possible but tortuous."

Is this better?

"In the 1980s islands of similar networks

speaking different dialects

sprung up all over Europe and the States,

making remote access possible but tortuous.

To make it easy for our physicists across the world

to access the ever-expanding Big Data

stored at CERN without traveling,

the networks needed to be talking

with the same language."

As you probably observed,

graphic representations are a great way

to capture the interest of your audience.

By depicting what you want to present and explain

with strong, memorable visuals,

you can communicate your idea more effectively.

So, now, challenge yourself.

Think of an abstract concept

that cannot be explained with simple words.

Go ahead and try your hand

at visually developing that idea.