This video follows the story of Neil, who learns why he can’t enlarge and print a photo that was taken with his phone. Using an analogy of a blanket, the video illustrates what happens when a small image is enlarged and what’s needed for printing larger photos. It teaches:
The basics of pixels in digital images
Why a digital image with a small number of pixels can’t be enlarged
What happens when a digital image is enlarged too much
This video is part of the Common Craft video library and is designed for teaching technology concepts. Common Craft members can download and/or embed it on public or private websites.
Matthew Monteith is a New York-based artist who had an idea for a photo series that captures people explaining artworks to others. Part of his motivation, according to this article on Flavorwire, was a fascination with explanation itself. What follows is my new favorite quote on the subject, by Monteith:
I am fascinated with the art of explanation, the moment when one individual, using their own knowledge of an object, both conceptual and historical takes on the task of animating that story and attempts to plant the seed of that idea into the minds of others. These ideas morph into new ideas and ultimately into new works.
I love it. The explainer's goal is to plant the seed of an idea into the minds of others. A few of Montheith's photos art explanation photos are below. You can find many more here.
I’m sure you know a friend or relative who has strongly-held opinions about a subject and is convinced that their position is right. But when asked about specifics, it becomes clear that they lack a basic understanding of the working parts that back-up that position.
A recent article by Tania Lombrozo, PhD., a cognitive scientist at UC Berkeley, highlights what causes these extreme positions and what can be done to moderate them. Lombrozo’s article is based on a recent paper by psychologist Phil Fernbach of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado. Fernbach found that:
[…] people overestimate how well they understand the mechanics of complex policies, and this sense of understanding helps bolster politically extreme positions.
The striking implication, for which the researchers find support, is that getting people to appreciate their own ignorance can be enough to rein in strong opinions.
The question becomes: How? How does Aunt Sally come to appreciate that she doesn’t understand as much as she thinks she does? This is not the best dinner conversation.
Fernbach found that one successful option is to ask her to explain the issue:
Here's how the study worked. People completed an online survey in which they first rated their agreement with several policies, such as sanctions on Iran and a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions. They were then asked to estimate how well they felt they understood each policy and received an unexpected request: for two of the policies, they were told to "describe all the details" they knew about the impact of instituting that policy, "going from the first step to the last, and providing the causal connection between the steps."
In other words, people were asked to explain the nitty gritty mechanics of how the policy would play out, an exercise that led many to subsequently lower their estimates of how well they actually understood the policy.
Thus humbled, people's agreement or disagreement with the policy also became more moderate. More surprisingly, explaining also affected behavior: a follow-up study found that after explaining how various policies would work, people were less likely to donate money to an organization that supported the position they had originally endorsed.
This sounds familiar. When writing scripts for Common Craft videos, I’ve often had my perspective of a subject change in the midst of explaining it. The process of trying to make a subject understandable for others helps me see it from a new perspective. This is one of the more powerful aspects of explanation that is often forgotten. Through explaining, we learn. Lombrozo continues:
Why was explanation so effective? In a New York Times piece discussing this work, co-author Steven Sloman and Phil Fernbach suggest that explanation acts as "a kind of revelatory trigger mechanism" that forces people to confront their lack of understanding. When you think you understand, probe further. Ask yourself "how?" and "why?" Ask others the same.
That’s great advice. When I speak about the Art of Explanation, I encourage the audience to look for explanation problems and then write explanations that would solve them. I ask them to pretend they are writing a script for a video because by simply writing about it, they will start to see it from a new more informed perspective.
Paul Graham, who runs the venture capital firm Y-Combinator, said something similar about the writing process back in 2005:
I think it's far more important to write well than most people realize. Writing doesn't just communicate ideas; it generates them. If you're bad at writing and don't like to do it, you'll miss out on most of the ideas writing would have generated.
The next time you need to explain a complex idea, or even want to understand it better, start writing. It’s an exercise that opens up the new perspectives.
NOTE: If you're interested in learning in-depth about the skill of explanation and how to make Common Craft Style videos, check out our online courses at the Explainer Academy.
We hear a lot about design these days. Apple products are probably the most popular examples. The idea is that Apple became one of the most valuable companies in the world, in part, because they focus on the design of their products.
But what does that mean, really? What do organizations who focus on design do differently?
Recently the TV show 60 Minutes featured the design company IDEO, which was founded by David Kelley. At multiple points in the interview, Kelley mentions an idea that is at the core of design and design thinking. The word is empathy.
The central tenet of design thinking, according to Kelley, isn't one of aesthetic or utility, but of empathy and human observation. "Be empathetic," Kelley explained to CBS' Charlie Rose. "Try to understand what people really value." Doing that, he says, will lay the foundation for more intuitive designs.
This got me thinking. When I talk about the most fundamental ideas that make explanations work, I use very similar language. To make something easy to understand, you must empathize. Put yourself in the audience’s shoes and try to understand how your communication sounds to them. Only by empathizing can you create an explanation that works.
Could it be that explanation and design have a lot more in common? I think so, and here’s one way to look at it.
We are all designers. If you’ve ever made a paper airplane, taken a photo or built a fire, you’ve designed something. You had a goal and you made decisions about how to accomplish that goal using a specific medium. We are all designers.
Likewise, we are all explainers. Every day we communicate ideas with the goal to help people understand. We explain why traffic was bad, why the CEO made a decision, why people sneeze more at springtime. We are all explainers.
Now, being a designer or explainer does not necessarily mean we are good at it. The rubber hits the road, in both cases, when we learn about quality and what goes into a good design or explanation. The goal is not simply to have done it, but to have done it well. And that’s where we find the big difference between the two.
Design thinking has developed over many years. It is a profession and a focus of attention and care. People study it, practice it and refine it over a lifetime. Some individuals have a talent for it and apply it to products we use every day. As a culture, we’re learning to appreciate good design and the designers who make it happen.
Unfortunately, this is not currently the case with explanation. While technical writers, teachers and journalists are often amazing explainers, we don't often think about these professions through the lens of explanation. We know they are great teachers, for example, but we don't necessarily point out explanation as a skill that makes them especially great. To me, this is like saying that an iPod is a useful gadget without recognizing that design is the element that makes it so useful.
My point is this: Communicators have an opportunity to think about the role of explanation like we think about the role of design. It's a skill that can be defined, developed, practiced and put to work in solving problems. Over time, we may see that a focus on explanation develops into something akin to design, where explainers emerge and inspire others to think differently about making ideas easy to understand.
It's possible that one key to explanation is applying design thinking to communication. By learning to empathize with our audience and understanding their needs, we can design communications that solve specific problems. The more this is the focus, the more we'll see that great explanations can become a new goal for professionals - something we can use to create change.
The next time you’re communicating something complex - remember - you’re a designer, too.
Here's the 60 Minutes segment about David Kelley and IDEO:
NOTE: If you're interested in learning in-depth about the skill of explanation and how to make Common Craft Style videos, check out our online courses at the Explainer Academy.
Think for just a minute about the skills you use every day at work. Maybe you’re a designer or engineer who had specialized training and tools. Maybe you’re an executive who has a talent for building teams. Or maybe you’re a Mom or Dad who works to help your child understand the world.
No matter what you do for work, you are an explainer. Part of your job is helping others understand ideas - it’s a fundamental part of being a professional. We explain ideas every day - we just never think about how we do it. Our explanations just... happen.
But what if they didn’t just happen? What if we actually recognized when an idea was not getting through and crafted a better explanation to solve the problem? In this context, explanations can solve problems, lots of them. Here’s one way to think about it...
Understanding comes with a cost. If we want to understand compound interest, we must invest some time. If we want to understand quantum physics, we need to invest a LOT of time. These investments are costs in the form of time and energy. If the cost is too high, we lose motivation.
When you’re at work and your team is not understanding an idea, they may feel that the cost of understanding it is too high. They don’t have the time to invest, so they’d rather just focus on other things.
For you, this is a challenge. Rather than convincing them to invest the time, you could focus on lowering the cost of understanding. By explaining the idea in a remarkable way, you may be able to get their attention and help them see an idea from a new perspective. This is the goal of explanation and why it matters. Explanations lower the cost of understanding so that we can motivate and inspire others to take the next step.
NOTE: If you're interested in learning in-depth about the skill of explanation and how to make Common Craft Style videos, check out our online courses at the Explainer Academy.
So, you may be wondering, how do you lower the cost? The first step is to empathize. Try to imagine yourself in their shoes and consider what your explanation sounds like to them. Talk about the idea from their perspective and build context. Second, write it down. By simply writing down what you're trying to explain, you'll start to see it in a new light. Pretend you're writing a script for a Common Craft video. Third, think in terms of confidence. What can you say that will create and sustain their confidence? Get their heads nodding early and build onto a big idea, step-by-step.
Think for just a minute about the skills you use every day at work. Maybe you’re a designer or engineer who had specialized training and tools. Maybe you’re an executive who has a talent for building teams. Or maybe you’re a Mom or Dad who works to help your child understand the world.