Visual thinking, characterized by the use of sketches and imagery, is highly effective at facilitating retention and understanding.
Tools like Excalidraw and Excalibrain in Obsidian enable users to create structured visual networks of thoughts and visualize relationships within a graph.
Deep dives
The Power of Visual Thinking in Note-Taking and Organization
Visual thinking, characterized by the use of sketches, diagrams, and imagery, has proven to be highly effective at facilitating retention and understanding. By combining visual elements with written notes, individuals can create a more structured and engaging network of thoughts and ideas. This approach, exemplified by tools like Excaladra and Excalabrain, allows users to navigate between images and sketches, using visuals as the content itself. Visual thinking can be applied to various contexts, such as note-taking in meetings, mind mapping ideas, presenting information, collaborative work, and even journaling. The flexibility and creativity that visual thinking affords make it a valuable tool for personal knowledge management.
The Journey of Creating Excaladra and Excalabrain
Zolt Vixian, creator of Excaladra and Excalabrain, had a long-standing desire to have a visual tool that allowed him to navigate between drawings and images more effectively. Excaladra serves as a drawing tool, implemented in Obsidian, enabling users to create structured visual networks of thoughts by taking advantage of Obsidian's linking capabilities and block referencing approach. Excalabrain, built on the Excaladra architecture, focuses on visualizing relationships within a graph, facilitating navigation between different nodes. Zolt uses these tools extensively for various purposes, such as note-taking, organizing ideas, presenting information, collaborating, creating thumbnails for YouTube videos, and incorporating visuals into his daily journaling process.
Visual Thinking as a Natural and Powerful Approach
Visual thinking is deeply rooted in human history and has been used by great thinkers and inventors throughout time. It offers a more natural way of organizing thoughts and conveying ideas compared to traditional text-based note-taking. Images and visuals have a unique ability to engage creativity, convey complex concepts, and facilitate comprehension. Visual thinking provides the freedom to explore ideas, brainstorm solutions, and organize information spatially, resulting in a more intuitive and comprehensive understanding of a topic. It allows individuals to break free from the confines of linear text and embrace a broader perspective that stimulates creativity and expands insights.
Using the LATCH Framework for Visual Knowledge Management
The LATCH framework, comprising location, alphabet, time, category, and hierarchy, provides a comprehensive approach for organizing information visually. Location is represented through mapping tools, enabling spatial referencing and context association. Alphabet allows for organizing notes alphabetically or creating a consistent folder structure. Time can be visualized through timelines, calendars, or tracking daily notes, providing a sense of chronology and historical context. Category is accomplished through tags, offering a way to color code and group related notes or concepts. Hierarchy is visualized via folder structures and Excalabrain's parent-child relationships, allowing for structured navigation and organization of ideas. Utilizing the LATCH framework in visual knowledge management optimizes information retrieval and enhances the cognitive understanding of interconnected concepts.
Zsolt Viczian is a YouTuber, blogger, and plug-in developer for Obsidian. He creates content on business analysis, algorithms of thought, note-taking, journaling, and visual thinking inside of Obsidian. He’s the creator of two plug-ins, Excalidraw, a visual-spatial drawing tool inside of Obsidian, and Excalibrain, a plug-in for visualizing relationships in your markdown documents.
In this podcast you will learn:
What visual thinking is
Why it's so effective at facilitating retention and understanding
How Zolt implements visual thinking into Obsidian.
