Via online or printed questionnaires (Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, 2019), words are often used as a mechanism to collect public opinion data. 

’Creative Convos’ questions the use of social non-verbal meaningful-play (Salen & Zimmerman, 2003) in public feedback gathering contexts.
We tested this within the context of the redesign of a public space, specifically Auckland’s Aotea Square.

Elizabeth Sanders an Associate Professor at Ohio State university found “preschool children (as well as their teachers and parents) could be useful partners in the design development process if we give them appropriate tools with which to express themselves.” (Sanders, E. B. N., 2000, p.3).

We propose a toolkit using clay to generate conversation around non-verbal interpretation. The use of modelling clay was based off a comment in the Lego®, Serious Play TM toolkit “Whilst the same effect might arguably be achieved with other childhood materials such as modelling clay” (Mccusker, S., 2014, p. 34). The Lego®, Serious Play TM toolkit itself is quite similar in tone to what we would like to achieve.

Words can also hide ugly concepts “…referring bluntly to ‘sleep deprivation’ as one of the techniques used at Guantanamo, acknowledges the usual bureaucratic euphemism for this form of torture with ironical scare quotes, in referring to the phrase ‘sleep “management”’ (Poole, S., 2006, p. 173).

The book Unspeak (Poole, S., 2006) gives different examples of words being intentionally used to mislead and confuse. We question relying on words alone for communicating. Drawings can communicate information that is not as easily expressed with words. A combination of the two can be used to great effect.

Understanding Comics (McCloud, S., 1993) is a good guide on how to communicate ideas most effectively using visuals.
“It’s considered normal in this society for children to combine words and pictures, so long as they grow out of it” Understanding Comics (McCloud, S., 1993, p. 139). We don’t think this should be the case. Drawing is so fundamental to how our team explains things, it is almost another language.

Adam Savage one of the co-stars from Mythbusters (Rees, P., 2003) seems to agree, also describing drawing as such “Drawing can have that same kind of power for a maker of any age or skill level. It is a language in which experts and novices alike can communicate, because it is fundamentally the universal language of creation.” (Savage, A., 2019, p. 142) in his new book.

When given a variety of components with which to express, Sanders notes “The transformation that takes place when a group of people goes from a verbal exchange of ideas to a collective and visually expressive mode is remarkable. It is invariably positive and can often be quite therapeutic for the participants.” (Sanders, E. B. N., 2000, p. 9).
After our playtests, participants also seemed to be more energised. They also applied a deeper level of thinking than when answering our questionnaire.

Clay may not be the best tool to use, just as McCloud (1993), Sanders (2000) and Mccusker (2014) do not say their approaches are best either. But from the information gathered, there is reason to use more than words when communicating or gathering feedback.