Get more out of your meetings with Visual Thinking.
We have the solution… it’s called Sketch note, a technique for visual note-taking that allows you to use very simple visuals in order to fix an idea not only with words. As we wrote before visualizing information is an art (or not) and helps everybody to understand complex problems much easier.
Have you ever seen someone make creative notes at a conference and adored the wall filling papers afterwards? It’s like magic, isn’t it? Some simple lines, pen on paper, help you to recall a whole day of workshop or conference. That’s the idea behind sketch notes, putting complex information into simple keywords, enhance them with icons and structure them purposeful.
“It’s much easier to do than you think. You don’t have to be an aspiring lettering artist, and you don’t need to develop top-notch drawing skills. Making your notes more interesting doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking. It’s not like learning to play the piano or taking up diving”, says Elisabeth from the smashingmagazine. I agree.
When you become good at sketch noting, it doesn’t just look like fun – it is fun.
Here are some tips to get you started:
- Start today – you just need paper and pen. And every pencil is the right tool.
- Practice! Practice more!
- Get a book or two to widen your visual vocabulary. Or book a workshop, where you can practice and learn from others.
- Practice! Practice even more! Never stop practicing.
When you are really into it, you can think about buying more advances equipment, but you just don’t need it in the beginning.
If a new hobby feels better if you spent a little money on it, I like to recommend some books to keep you going and growing (German + English):
- The Sketchnote Handbook, The illustrated guide to visual note taking by Mike Rohde
- Visual Thinking, Empowering People & Organizations through Visual Collaboration by Willemien Brand
- Die Sketchnote Starthilfe by Tanja Wehr
- Sketchnotes kann jeder, Visuelle Notizen leicht gemacht by Ines Schaffranek
Sketchnote lovers claim that visual thinking drives innovation because it’s as easy as writing, and it helps solve problems of communication – it’s a language that everybody understands.
And more good news, together with Tommaso I will do a workshop during WorldUsabilityDay in Hamburg. You will learn some basic techniques to bring your meetings’ contents onto paper. You will develop and practice your sketching skills; and together we will look at the very primary principles of visual perception and sharpen our minds, hands and eyes.
You’ll get out of your comfort zone while getting more fluent using the very basic techniques of taking sketch notes, in order to build a very first and basic level of visualization – following the motto “learn, apply, empower”. But even more, you will have fun, you will experiment, and you will improve.
Save your seat today: #wudhh is free of charge.
(Thursday, November 8th, 2018, starting at 09:30 a.m. at Kunst- und Mediencampus Hamburg, Forum Finkenau, Finkenau 35, 22081 Hamburg)
Florian Hättich
Industrial & UX Design
