Visual Metaphors and Ideas for Creating Visualizations of Complex Ideas

Lee Lefever at Common Craft is a master of creating visualizations and explanations of complex ideas. So when he posted a TED-Ed video about making visualizations I knew that I had to watch it.

In Making a TED-Ed Lesson: Visualizing Complex Ideas we learn the differences between written metaphors and visual metaphors and how they can impact your understanding of complex ideas. To demonstrate these ideas we see a comparison between showing someone underlined text on a page and showing someone a map of ideas while talking about those ideas. The video is embedded below.

Applications for Education
This TED-Ed lesson talks about visualizing big data and complex ideas, but the concept of using visual metaphors is one that students can apply to designing presentation slides, videos, and infographics.