While it is important for an engineer to utilise all sensory options to fully understand any challenge, the ability to visualise remains the most vital skill.
So in this article, I am going to talk about a way you can improve this.
It might seem a bit hippy, but it works.
Pretty much everything you do can be improved with dedicated training. From something physical like running to something incorporeal like having compassion for all others. So it would be the same for your ability to visualise.
There is a practice that requires, probably more than anything, excellent visualisation skills.
And that’s meditation.
In some parts of the world, this is considered a daily activity. In others it is thought to be similar to prayer. In much of the West, it is associated with hippies and alternative life styles.
Regardless of how you view it, I am, in this article, going to view it as a cognitive process – and then take from it aspects that are useful for visualisation, and thus engineering.
Because I was raised in an area that had a community with a significant element of people pursuing an alternative lifestyle, I was introduced to meditation and its various tools in my teens.
Later in life, I found that the visualisation skill this developed in me, was perfect for many engineering tasks.
And what follows is the primary technique used to develop this skill. Try it daily if you feel your ability to visualise could be improved.

1. Find a quiet place you can sit or lie down for a period without being disturbed.
2. Relax. If you have a technique you use for this, then use that. Otherwise, Try this:
   1. Close your eyes.
   2. Now focus on the peripheral sounds around you. Slowly work out to the sounds farthest away (not the quietest – the farthest away).
   3. As you do this, think about the greater world and your physical place within it. This will help distract you from other worries so you can relax.
   4. Now focus on your breathing so your breaths become deeper and slower.
   5. You might not be totally relaxed, but you will be in a better position to try the next step
3. Imagine you are sitting in a movie theatre – visualise the colour of the furniture, all the seating, the screen in front, the speakers on the wall, the aisles for people to enter and leave, the exit signs. All the different details – try to see them in your mind’s eye at the one time. It might not be easy, but this is training so you can always come back to it to see it get better.
4. Now imagine the lights going dark so you can see what will be presented on the screen.
5. An image is now projected onto the screen. It is nothing more than a bolt. But you can visualise every aspect of the bolt. The thread, any flash from forging, the shape of the head, the colour. Focus on creating every detail in your mind’s eye. Again, it might not be easy, but this is training so you can always come back to it to see it get better.
6. Keep this image in your mind’s eye for about a minute. You will likely lose the image at times, and you will need to bring it back – this is all part of the training and improving your skill.
7. Open your eyes and remember to do this again tomorrow – until you feel you are better at visualising.

There are many other things you could use meditation for (including engineering) so don’t think the above was meant to be a thorough coverage of meditation. It is simply a training exercise to help you improve your visualisation skill.

In 2016, during the Syrian Civil War, statistics about the conflict were everywhere. Thousands of people had been killed. The numbers were reported regularly. And yet, most people barely reacted.

Then a single photo changed everything.

It was the image of Omran Daqneesh, a young boy sitting dazed in an ambulance, face bloody and covered in dust. He wasn’t dead. He wasn’t even seriously injured. But because it was a child, and because it was visual, the world suddenly cared.

You might recall it. Can you also recall if it changed your thoughts about the war?

I remember being annoyed. People had been told about the deaths for months. They knew the scale of the suffering - including children. But they only seemed to care when the image hit their emotions.

This was not a new phenomenon. During the late 1800s, Belgian authorities were brutalising the people of the Congo. Reports were published. Descriptions were circulated. But global outrage only came when photographs appeared. One in particular, showing a father looking at the severed hands and feet of his child, triggered a wave of action. Words and statistics alone had not been enough.
The lesson is clear. If you want people to understand, sometimes you need imagery.

What this means for engineers
At first glance, this might feel like a very human failing that has little to do with engineering. But engineers face the same limitation. Numbers, tables, and percentages do not always trigger our full understanding. We often need to convert them into something more tangible to see their significance.
Good engineers learn to paint those pictures in their mind’s eye.

• What does it actually sound like when the SPL reaches that decibel level at that frequency?
• How would it smell if sewage of concentration x% entered the floodwaters?
• What tissue damage would be done if that voltage caused an electric shock to human skin?

In each case, data is only the starting point. Real understanding comes when you can translate the data into sensory and physical implications.

The challenge for the global engineer
We cannot always wait for the real image, the real sound, or the real smell. Our work depends on imagining those consequences before they occur. That’s how we prevent failure and design better systems.
So here is the challenge: next time you are presented with data, don’t just note the numbers. Take the extra step. Convert them into their physical impact. Hear it, smell it, feel it in your imagination.

If you do, you will have overcome one of the limitations of being human. And you will be closer to becoming a truly global engineer.

And you just might start to sense tragedy well before others.

Give thought now to how often you have only understood the seriousness of a situation after you experienced it in some way. And, based on that, think about if you need to put more conscious effort into using numbers to paint a picture in your mind's eye.