LBD | Berpikir Visual (Visual Thinking)

Main ideas / concepts conveyed

• Visual thinking (berpikir visual) is presented as a thinking process that relies on:

  • Attention (where the mind focuses),
  • Eye movements (how attention is directed through visual sampling),
  • Pattern searching (actively looking for meaningful patterns in what’s seen).

• Eyes and mind are tightly interconnected:

  • Eye movements feed visual information continuously to the mind.
  • What we think influences what we notice—and what the eyes capture.

• Vision is limited:

  • People cannot see everything at once; the eyes must choose a focal object and shift focus over time.
  • These limits are also useful: they help prevent cognitive overload and support efficient thinking.

• Visual thinking happens faster than verbal thinking:

  • Verbal thinking (language-based) is slower and used for deep, difficult, or prolonged problems.
  • Visual thinking is faster and more immediate—for example, recognizing what to do when seeing a red traffic light without needing to work through explanations.

• Attention is selective, leading to “change blindness”:

  • When people focus on one task/object, other changes can go unnoticed.
  • This supports the idea that visual thinking depends on what is prioritized in attention.

• Design and visualization should leverage visual thinking:

  • Good design helps audiences focus and extract patterns quickly using visual cues (e.g., color, shape, lines).
  • Visuals improve speed and accuracy of information search compared with raw numbers.
  • After grasping the main pattern visually, people may switch to verbal detail (numbers/text) for specifics.

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Methodology / practical instructions (as implied for design and visualization)

When designing visual communication, ensure the viewer can:

• Direct attention to a focal point

  • Give the design a clear “center” (title, key illustration, prominent label, etc.).
  • Use visual hierarchy so the most important element is noticed first.

• Shift attention efficiently

  • Viewers will move focus from one element to another in sequence.
  • Organize the layout so each successive focus point supports understanding.

• Make patterns easy to detect

  • Use consistent visual grouping (e.g., routes sharing the same color).
  • Use contrasts (color vs. black-and-white) to distinguish categories/routes.
  • Use lines/structure so relationships become visually trackable.

• Improve information retrieval speed

  • Prefer visual forms when the goal is to quickly answer questions like:
    • “Which is highest/lowest?”
    • “When does something decline?”
    • “Which route/path applies?”

• Use numbers/text only after the pattern is understood

  • Once the audience extracts the visual insight, provide detailed values via verbal/textual data.

Examples used to illustrate these principles

• Poster design

  • A good poster contains something that becomes the audience’s main attention focus.

• Transit map (Jabodetabek / KRL network)

  • Color-coded routes and connecting lines make it easier to:
    • Find the route between two locations,
    • Count/interpret intermediate stations,
    • Distinguish between similar routes that would be hard to separate in black-and-white.

• Rice production chart (2008–2017)

  • A visual bar/length comparison makes it faster to see:
    • The highest and lowest years,
    • Declines (years where bars/lengths shorten compared to the previous year).
  • For exact figures, the explanation then “switches” to verbal/number detail (e.g., values attributed to the Ministry of Agriculture and BPS).

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Main “takeaways” / conclusions (three key points)

1. Sight and thought are interconnected Visual input from eye movements continually shapes what people think; designers should consider how viewers will sample visual information.

2. People tend to focus sequentially Because the eyes can focus only on certain elements at a time, design should guide attention using visual features like color and shape.

3. Effective visuals reveal clear patterns Visualization should help viewers extract trends/patterns quickly (and then use text/numbers for further detail).

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Speakers / sources featured

• Colin Ware — referenced via the book Visual Thinking for Design.
• Simons and Levin (1998) — referenced for the study/experiment leading to the term change blindness.