Rich Pictures

The goal of a rich picture is to better understand a complex situation in order to identify elements that need to be considered in problem solving. Among these important elements are stakeholders, their interests, and the interactions and connections between them (see also stakeholder identification, stakeholder importance and influence and stakeholder interests).Because rich pictures encourage thinking in terms of a system full of actors and stakeholders, they can help the user to understand the complexity of an entire situation by thinking holistically. This holistic thinking may help to see relationships and connections that may otherwise be missed (WAGENINGEN UR, 2008).

The key elements that should be included in a rich picture are structure, process, and concerns. For sustainable sanitation and water management, a good way to start to identify these elements is by going through the steps of Understand Your System. 

• “Structure” includes anything that is slow to change, such as geographical situation or hierarchical structure of an association. For water and sanitation, some examples of “structure” may be the local hydrological system, water supply network, wastewater collection and treatment system, geographical distribution of water users (households, farmers, industries, etc.), and institutional and legal frameworks (see Understand Your System for more information). 
• “Process”represents any transformations that occur within the system, such as goods exchange or information transfer. In water and sanitation, some examples of “process” might be water use, wastewater production, fertiliser use, or negotiations or dialogues between stakeholders. (see Understand Your System for more information).
• “Concerns”include all stakeholders’ motivations that influence their perspective. For water and sanitation, “concerns” might include drinking water quality, adequate water quantity, affordability, protection of natural resources, convenience, or dignity. “Concerns” may also include the relationships between different stakeholders and their perspectives toward different aspects of the system (for more information see Stakeholder Analysis starting by stakeholder identification factsheet).

Constructing a rich picture requires only a large drawing surface and writing utensils of different colours. A rich picture can be drawn in whatever way best suits the needs of the individual or group, and good drawing skills are not necessary. Anything that is seen as significant should be added to the rich picture, and care should be taken to identify all stakeholders who are involved in or may be affected by the system. Because it is important that the rich picture be clear to everyone involved, certain techniques are sometimes used to represent elements like stakeholder perspectives (such as thought bubbles) and relationships (such as crossed swords for stakeholder conflicts). These or other techniques may be used, as agreed upon by the group.

To help you to get started drawing a rich picture for exploring your local SSWM system, you can also use the Understand Your System tool for further guidance.

Rich pictures are particularly useful as a part of participatory planning in refining each individual’s understanding of the system by integrating all perspectives into one rich picture (see also planning and process tools or stakeholder strategy plan). A rich picture can help to open discussion and come to a broad, shared understanding of a situation in a way that is meaningful to the actors in that system. Creating rich pictures as part of participatory planning should therefore involve the active participation of as many of the relevant stakeholders as possible. For stakeholders who are not present, interview can be conducted beforehand in order to best represent their motivations, concerns, and perspectives in the rich picture (see also semi-structured interviews or focus group discussions). Creating rich pictures along with stakeholders can also lead to the identification of new stakeholders that had previously not been considered as part of the system. In order to facilitate discussion and interaction between stakeholders, other techniques may be employed in such as brainstorming, mindmapping, or participatory mapping.

While rich pictures are useful in gaining an understanding of a complex system at the beginning of the participatory planning process, they can also be used throughout this process in order to record, reason about, communicate, and negotiate issues as they arise. In this sense, rich pictures can be viewed as iterative tools, where involvement of stakeholders throughout the participatory planning process may lead to repeated revisions of the rich picture and a subsequent better understanding of the system. As rich pictures are modified, they may be compared to the initial rich picture in order to evaluate progress or change.

• Structure: include only enough structure to allow you to record the process and concerns. This requires that all people who will use could conceivably be affected by the system be introduced.
• Process: do not attempt to record all the intricacies of process; a broad-brush approach is usually all that is needed.
• Concerns: caricature the concern in a thought bubble, but attach a more detailed explanation in a supplementary document so everyone will be able to understand.
• Use the language of the people depicted in it: this will make your rich picture comprehensible to all involved.
• Use any pictorial or textual device that suits your purpose: there is no correct way of drawing a rich picture. The style is dependent on the contributors as well as the situation.