The VELD Technique: Step 1

The VELD Technique: Step 1


“I needed to tell a story with the data. I also, determined that it needed to be visually distinctive to for it to be memorable”, Randy Krum from his book Cool Infographics: Effective Communication with Data Visualization and Design. The VELD Technique recognizes that before there were words, there were pictures (take the example of Egyptian hieroglyphics). Check out The Best Data Visualizations of 2013.

 In fact, one of the earliest known visualizations is a map. The famous Lascaux caves in France contain paintings on their walls that date from the paleolithic period. One particular painting shows three bright stars (Vega, Deneb and Altair) known as the Summer Triangle. The images around them may suggest ideas of constellations, ways to help remember the star patterns and navigate.

The Lascaux caves example clearly shows a context that birthed the content, that was elaborated through a visual, and which ultimately enabled learning. This fits into the four layers of our Visualization Concentric. Now, when we look at context, as an instructional designer, you need to take a holistic view.


While simple maps and diagrams represent static visuals, in today’s age of multimedia, we learning designers are afforded the privilege of working with animated infographics, tables, graphs and charts. We can even create click and reveal screens, or customized animations for an immersive learning experience—which are high in visual content and low in text. Hmmm… but where do we draw the line so that the visual does not take away from the learning? Welcome to the VELD Process.


There are 4-steps, which form the backbone of the VELD Technique. They are non-negotiable and linear. To stay true to the learning experience (learner empathy is paramount), a good instructional designer always begins by repositioning the content. What do I mean by this?

It means that you must first, check the pulse of the content—what is the essence of what the text is talking about. Next, you must take ownership of the voiceover/content. To do this, you can shift sentences, re-read and rewrite until you are sure that the content flows with intensity and clarity. Think of this step as laying the bricks and concrete. If you do not position the bricks with maximum tightness, your entire house will develop cracks.

Often, project managers, will argue that “we should not touch the client’s content” or that “rewriting the content is not within the scope of the project”. However, this rookie oversight always shows up cracks during the alpha review. I have been through this cycle so many times that in the interest of the project, my reputation and in full empathy with my invisible learner—I always begin by editing out redundancies, illogical transitions and overly-descriptive text, making sure NOT to misinterpret the client’s original expression/vocabulary.


Let me give you a for instance here. I received content to do with a company’s mission and vision. The characteristics of the mission were listed and then the definition of a vision was shared, with examples. I immediately decided that, ‘vision’ comes before ‘mission’ (re-adjusting for logical flow of content), I added active voice for both screen titles (Creating an Effective Vision, Creating an Effective Mission) and edited the language for typos, errors and punctuation inconsistencies.

This article is the second part of a 4-part series detailing Shalini Gogia’s VELD Technique. Next Monday, we will explore the next 3 steps of the VELD process.