Visual learning is a learning style that favors images.
- If you like graphics, images, colors and maps to communicate thoughts, you are a visual learner
- If you need to see information to understand it or create your own vision to clarify ideas, you are a visual learner
- If you looked at the image below before reading this text, you are a visual learner
The book and this website illustrate project management concepts through cartoons, roadmaps, and other graphics. If you are a visual learner, it will help you prepare for the PMP® exam by showing the scope of the exam and different views of how to slice-and-dice the content to understand it better.
This website and accompanying book are for fellow visual thinkers who like to see the big picture before getting into details. Sometimes called “right-brained,” after the portion of the brain responsible for processing images, we would rather see how something works than being told the information in detail.
Research into visual thinking by David Hyerle, creator of Thinking Maps methodology, reports that 90% of the information entering the brain is visual. 40% of all nerve fibers connected to the brain are connected to the retina, and a full 20% of the entire cerebral cortex is dedicated to vision, so let’s use it.
By using mind maps, this book shows the workings of project management and illustrates how all the parts link together. Many memorization techniques are based on spatial memory – by associating ideas with places, we can recall them more easily.
Some of the topic quiz questions feature drag and drop sorting to tap into our spatial awareness and memory. Moving things around helps us make them more real in our minds. It is one of the reasons Kanban boards are used on projects. It helps us visualize work, see where things are and where they need to get to.
Using a combination of images, mind maps, and explanations, we engage the right and left hemispheres of our brains to build stronger comprehension and better recall. Tests show most people only remember 10% of what they heard three days ago. Add an image to the message, and this figure jumps to 65%.
So, if you are going through all the effort of studying for your PMP® exam, make it worth your time. Use visual tools instead of reading and rereading content up to 6 times to achieve similar retention.
If you are a visual learner and are studying for your PMP® credential, you are in the right place.