Once upon a time I was working a HUGE project for a client and I was collaborating with a team scattered throughout the country. I had an idea for communicating the information graphically but I’m not an artist. I bused out my whiteboard markers, drew it on my whiteboard then took a picture of it with my digital camera and sent it to the researcher who fact-checked it and sent it on to the graphic designer. It wasn’t an elegant system but it did the trick.

Then I found a site created by those smart light-bulb-making folks at GE. It changed how I collaborated on these visual projects and you might find it helpful, too.

The site is called ImaginationCubed.com. And before you go there, I should tell you that it is really addictive so make sure the rest of your work is done before you visit the site! Basically, the site is just one page and you can draw on it.

Yep, that’s it. Just that. You go there. You draw. End of story. There are a few different ways to draw – you get lines of different thickness, you get shapes and text of different sizes, and you can control the color and undo your work. Yeah, I know, it doesn’t sound that amazing; nor does it sound really any different than you might find by simply opening the Microsoft Paint program in your PC.

But here’s why I like it: You can share your drawings with others. You can collaborate on drawing by simply inviting someone others to draw with you. And that makes a world of difference. I’ve since had other people tell me about different tools that do a similar job but I’ve yet to find one that is as simple and elegant and yet robust as ImaginationCubed.com.

Since that initial project, I’ve used it frequently. When I’m not designing my next tattoo or drawing hilarious stick figures, I’m actually working on it, walking clients through ways to communicate a concept visually.

Here are some ways I’ve used it recently with clients and collaborators:

• I’ve drawn out a rough picture representing a line-drawn animation that would go along with the narration I was writing for a training project. The collaborators could immediately see how I was envisioning the animation and how it was influencing the narration. They could make changes and that helped me to shape the narration.
• I‘ve drawn out a sales funnel and had client confirm, with some small amendments, that I basically understood what their sales funnel was and how my work fit into it.
• I’ve drawn out flow charts as I’ve worked with clients and collaborators on how the best workflow should go in a new collaboration.

ImaginationCubed.com isn’t the most feature-rich site you’ll ever encounter and there are other great collaborative visual communication sites that do the trick, but this free, fast site is great for those quick times when you’re talking on the phone and you wish that you could show instead of just tell.