WritersUA: Google Chrome Comic & Visual Communication

by April 1, 2009

I spent yesterday at the WritersUA conference in Seattle but missed the opening keynote with Scott McCloud discussing his work on the Google Chrome comic book. Luckily the conference provided a recap:

Scott was interviewed by Joe Welinske. He talked first about the germination of the comic, the early process of letting engineers sketch out the engineering details of Google Chrome. "The first goal was to get Scott to understand."

When you try to visualize complex systems, you realize that there is a visual metaphor. You can reduce what you have to say to a few simple parameters. Static images become anchors (natural mnemonic device) in memory. Use spatial metaphors to communicate complex concepts.

Get excited about what you have to say, and then realize you have a set of visual tools to get the idea into reader's heads and nail it there.

Interesting Link: The Microsoft Office comic "The Enchanted Office"