Enhance your communication

skills with sketching

Rebecca Jackson @_rebeccajackson

Product Anonymous @prod_anon #prodmgmt

March 19 2015

About me

• Into community management, social media, intranets, UX, product management…

• Rediscovered drawing a few years ago

• Twitter: @_rebeccajackson

About you

• Say Hi to the people next to you

• Exchange names

• It will make things easier later on :)

Agenda

• Why visual communication is awesome

• How to introduce sketching back into your life

• Examples

• 7 steps to sketchnoting

• Practice time

• Resources

Why visual communication is awesome

Promotes creativity

• Drawing from imagination flexes your creative muscles

• Drawing what you see builds your visual memory

It’s good for your brain

• People who doodle, recall information than those who don’t

• Absent doodling can help you concentrate better

• Drawing your notes helps to remember content better

• The brain makes connections between your drawings and the content

Will help you explore and iterate• Drawing is associative

(rather than linear)

• In a group, you can collaborate on an idea

It’s engaging

• Sketched notes look nicer than pages of writing

• People are drawn to images

• And images are a universal language

• Low fidelity is better – it’s more relatable

How to introduce sketching back into your life

Just start to draw again

• Doodle in the margins

• Sketch instead of taking notes

• Draw instead of taking photos

Use the whiteboard and butchers paperThere are opportunities to draw everyday

• Ideation

• Story boards

• Wireframes

Instead of reaching for the mouse, find a marker

Try sketchnoting

• Meeting notes

• Conference presentations

• Videos

• Books

• Experiences

Examples

Eva-Lotta Lam ‘My contribution to Mike Rohde's Sketchnotes Handbook’ https://flic.kr/p/dL6gvR CC BY-SA 2.0

Matthew Magain ‘Innovation: A Global Perspective’ https://flic.kr/p/e4E9is © All Rights Reserved (Used with Permission)

Caroline Sewell ‘2014 TypeCon, Sketchnotes 3 of 5’ https://flic.kr/p/ppAM7H CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Mauro Toselli ‘Design Thinking MOOC - WHAT IS Week 3 recap’ https://flic.kr/p/re3ofi © All Rights Reserved (Used with Permission)

Ivan Seymus ‘Walkies in Rome’ https://flic.kr/p/pPpEWE CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Rebecca Jackson My First Sketchnote: How great leaders inspire action https://flic.kr/p/eA57Gp © All Rights Reserved

7 steps to sketchnotingTips and tools

Choose your weapons

• Something to draw with

• Something to draw on

• A hard surface helps

• Don’t forget spares

• Markers are good for highlights or a bit of colour

Pre work

• Save time and get a head start

• Research if you can

• Fill in before hand• Title

• Portrait of speaker

• Location and date

Choose your seat

• Comfort really helps

• You need good light (can BYO)

• Close enough to hear well

Pace and use your space

• Are you limited in page space?

• Watch the clock

• Decide what pattern you want to follow

Outline first, detail later

• Where time is limited, economise

• Draw the basics in session

• Fill in gaps later on

Embrace your own style

• The beauty of sketchnotes is their uniqueness

• Each person has a varied style

• It’s not about a perfect representation

• A good enough representation will communicate the same message as detail

Practice, practice, practiceLike everything, the more you use it the better you become

Practice

Watch,Listen Record

• Put the title on the page

• Pick out the “chunky” bits

• Use images, key words, icons

Video 1

Kelly McGonigal- How to make stress your friend https://youtu.be/RcGyVTAoXEU

Discussion

Talk with the people next to you that you met earlier

• Was it easy / hard?

• How did the process make you feel?

Video 2

Shawn Achor - The happy secret to better work https://youtu.be/fLJsdqxnZb0

Resources

Books

• The Sketchnote Handbook and Workbook - Mike Rohde http://rohdesign.com/books/

• The Doodle Revolution - Sunni Brown http://amzn.com/1591845882

• 143 Visuals – Scott Torrance and Mirka Volákováhttp://www.slideshare.net/ScottTorrance/ebook-143-visuals

• UX Sketchnotes - Matt Magain http://uxmastery.com/ux-sketchnotes-a-free-ebook-containing-50-sketches-of-inspiring-ux-talks/

Interwebs

• The Sketchnote Army sketchnotearmy.com/

• Sketchnotes subredditwww.reddit.com/r/sketchnotes/

• Twitter:• @SketchnoteArmy

• #sketchnotes

• #todaysdoodle

Presentations

• Drawing in class - Rachael Smith youtu.be/3tJPeumHNLY

• Hack your life with visual thinking - Claire Holgate youtu.be/YxZSme_KJik

• Doodlers unite! – Sunni Brown youtu.be/7fx0QcHyrFk

• Why what you draw is good enough – Jeannel King youtu.be/MbjGth5LLxQ

Thanks for sketching

Thanks to Product Anonymous and Brainmates

How to find me

• Twitter: @_rebeccajackson• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccajljackson• Blog: rebeccajacksonblogs.wordpress.com• Email: rebeccajljackson@gmail.com

Share your sketchnotes on Twitter #sketchnotes#prodmgmt@_rebeccajackson

References

• The Sketchnote Handbook, Mike Rohde

• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/10/10/things-you-can-accomplish-with-hand-sketching-doodling/

• http://makeapowerfulpoint.com/2014/04/16/an-argument-for-visual-thinking-in-business/

• http://www.thebookoflife.org/why-you-should-stop-taking-pictures-on-your-phone-and-learn-to-draw/

• https://designschool.canva.com/blog/7-ways-doodling-will-change-your-life

• http://uxmastery.com/why-sketchnoting-makes-you-a-better-ux-designer/

• http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1882127,00.html