Somewhere between 40%-55% of people have there primary learning style based on visual sensory input. Some studies have revealed 40%, some 50% and others up to 55%. The important point here is that this represents on average every second person you encounter.
So … what specifically is important to them?
People that greatly depend on visual information typically place a high level of importance on what they see and what things look like. They will take notice your new glasses, new clothes or your latest hair cut. These are the people who really do form long lasting first impressions at first sight. They are very good spellers and memorize by seeing pictures. They can often maintain focus even when there are potentially distracting noises around them.
Often they learn by looking at the world through visual images and understand by making pictures of the meaning. They are often gazing over your head or off to one side; this is because they are literally looking at the pictures or movies they are creating while you are speaking.
They need to see the presenter’s body language and facial expression to fully understand the content of the discussion and tend to prefer sitting as close as possible to the presenter to avoid visual obstructions. They may learn best from visual displays including: diagrams, illustrations, PowerPoint slide shows, videos, flipcharts and hand-outs. During a meeting or discussion, visual learners often prefer to take detailed notes to absorb the information by seeing it on paper.
The key here is to be the observer (yes … it’s your turn to go visual). If you pick up on the visual learner’s non-verbal commnication, you have the opportunity to work with it and communicate with them in a way that engages and gets win-win results.
