Let us be clear, the use of visual methods to inform, analyse and deliver policy is not new! Various visual approaches from the social sciences are used to inform politics and political studies. For example, there have been investigations of political party TV advertisements (Robinson, 1976), as well as the influence of visual imagery such as national flags on political behaviour and decisions (Hassin et al, 2007). There is a long history within the social sciences of visual methods, particularly in sociology, anthropology and the arts (see Grady, 2008; Margolis and Pauwels, 2011). However, to date, there is little work that outlines the ways in which the visual components of the social sciences can contribute to policy making and political analysis.

The hyper-visual nature of modern society emphasises the need for policymakers to actively consider the use of visual methods in policy making and policy analysis (see Knowles and Sweetman, 2004; Ball and Gilligan, 2010; Spencer, 2011). The vast majority of human communication is non-verbal (Davies et al, 1990); we are built to process visual information faster than textual information (Holcomb and Grainger, 2006; Merieb and Hoehn, 2007; Semetko and Scammell, 2012). With new technology, there has been a burgeoning of visual information (Uimonen, 2013), described by Gatto (2015) as a data explosion. There was a 4000% increase in visuals in literature from 1990 to 2008 (Google Ngram Viewer, in NeoMam Studios, 2015) and a 9900% increase of visuals on the Internet since 2007 (Google Trends, in NeoMam Studios, 2015).

Visual information shows us ways in which we interact socially and politically (Smith, K.L. et al, 2004). It affects us cognitively and emotionally, enabling us to communicate better about the issues and emotions that affect our thought processes (Van Oostendorp et al, 1999). As such, visual information is a critical and readily accessible ‘data’ resource for policy-makers, providing rapid insights into evolving social and political issues and consequent policy preferences. However, access to, and appropriate use of, such visual information is dependent on policymakers’ and/or research colleagues’ visual literacy (Symon and Cassell, 2012).