In 2018 I finished the exam of the WdKA’s Master Design Research that consisted of three parts: a thesis, a design process and a portable exposition. The design process can be found in the thesis, the thesis can be downloaded here. And since I passed the exam I used the portable exposition various times to show and tell auditors my quest about my design research question: how can I as auditor and designer discover and tell visual stories in audits?
Discover? Not all visuals lead into an infographic that will be published, or an assignment for an animator. Visualize, making something tangible, adding hierarchy and structure, prototyping – all these discovery-elements do not immediately lead to a story to tell, but do give insights and engage stakeholders when involved during audits.
Tell? When you start to discover visual stories, these stories will most of the time look different from the end result. Visuals to discover and visuals to tell differ because the purpose and the users differ. In my experience it helps to involve some fresh eyes to create useful, accessible and engaging visual stories worth publishing.
Linda Meijer-Wassenaar