APPLYING IMPORTANCE TO YOUR VISUAL THINKING LIKE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS

 One of the most common mistakes in visual thinking is making visual maps or sketchnotes in which everything we draw has the same size.

A couple of years ago, a video by Dave Gray reminded me of the way the Egyptians represented their gods, and this is a great tip because most visual maps fail due to the lack of hierarchical levels. This means that when you apply visual thinking through a map or a sketchnote and all the drawings have the same size; we communicate that everything has the same importance. If everything has the same visual importance, it will be difficult to attract attention to those important parts of your map.

That's why the Egyptian perspective could help with hierarchy in your visual thinking.

The main characteristic is that Egyptian figures were depicted of sizes based on importance and not on their distance from the sculptor's perspective. For instance, the Pharaoh would be depicted as the largest figure in a wall no matter where he was situated, and a greater God would be depicted larger than a lesser god. 

Remember this, most of the time, people won't read 100% of your maps. They browse the information, and they will stop only when something bigger catches their attention. And here comes the second tip:

Those bigger things you are using to catch people's attention will be more attractive to your audience if they are metaphors instead of simple big icons.  

Just like the Egyptians. Those prominent Egyptian deities represent natural phenomena, from physical objects like the earth or the sun to abstract forces like knowledge and creativity. They were big metaphors.

So keep in mind this Egyptian rule and apply size concerning importance.