Not all people are blessed with technical knowledge about technologies. Some people use technology or devices because it is trending nowadays. Technology comes in many forms, aspects, categories, and fields. The advancement of technology has affected businesses, as well as our daily life.
These are the strategies to explain technical concepts to non-technical people:
Know Your Audience and Ask Questions
The very first step to explain things to non-technical people is to know your audience. You and your audience must be on the same page. You can’t adequately explain things by blindly talking about technology in education and other stuff without knowing your audience. You have a different audience, and they have a different understanding of technology.
To know your audience, you must ask questions if they have at least a basic idea of technology. What their expectations are and what their purpose for learning technology concepts is. Every audience has a different perspective and understanding; you need to try to get all the information to deliver a better explanation for your audience.
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Emphasize Impact, Not Process
Most of the spokesperson, when talking technology, emphasize too much on the process of technical information. The non-technical audience will not understand the process of technical details. Instead of talking about the process, you need to talk more about the impact to get their attention and to understand better about a particular technology.
If the purpose of your audience is to know about cybersecurity, you need to explain the impact of cybersecurity. If you talk about the process, your audience will lose interest as they may not have the capabilities to understand how it works. Focusing on what the cybersecurity can offer will get their attention and interest and they might start asking for more information about cybersecurity.
Illustrate While Explaining
Technology topics might be a boring session for non-technical people. People get easily bored or lose interest if they don’t have any idea about the topic that was discussed. People can’t be attracted by talking and explaining things that they don’t understand. Technology has an in-depth process of the way it works.
To get the attention of your audience, you must illustrate while explaining things to non-technical people. Explaining while doing illustration will surely get their attention. At least 60% of people are visual learners. It is much easier to explain complicated things with the help of figures to deliver the information to non-technical people.
Understand their Concerns
The basis for relaying information to other people is to know what their concerns are. It is much easier to explain things if we know what their purpose is for having this lecture or why they are interested in certain technology products. By understanding their concerns, you can explain things more effectively and relay information based on what they want to know.
No Jargon and Metaphor
If you already have the audience’s attention, you must avoid using technical jargon or acronyms for technical vocabulary. If you want to use jargon and acronyms, you must follow-up with an explanation, not the meaning of the acronym because the audience will not understand it.
Another tip for getting the audience to listen to you is to avoid using metaphors. Metaphor is a technical communication toolbox; people don’t realize the challenge to come up with a situation where they are using a metaphor. You need to do the basics among the basics to help them understand what you are trying to say.
Takeaway
A tech-savvy and non-tech savvy audience has a different view and level of understanding. Even when we have a dominant knowledge regarding technology, we should not try to look down on people who don’t have enough knowledge of technology. We should educate them and help them understand the beauty of technology and what it can offer.
Guest Author- Angelo, Content Author at facts.net
