GETTING STARTED WITH SKETCHNOTING Michele
Ide-Smith User Experience Designer, Red Gate @micheleidesmith

Workshop plan • Introduction (3m)
• Getting started (7m) • Let’s sketch! (15 m)

WHAT IS
SKETCHNOTING?

What is sketchnoting? Illustration by
Mike Rohde from The Sketchnote Handbook (Peachpit) Visual note taking

Lots of different styles… Carolyn
Sewell Gerren Lamson http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedestriantype/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/25552033@N06/

Lots of different styles… agent.fin
Eva-Lotta Lam http://www.flickr.com/photos/agentfin/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/evalottchen/

Lots of different styles… Francis
Rowland Mike Rohde http://www.flickr.com/photos/francisrowland/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/

Discover your own style! Michele
Ide-Smith http://www.flickr.com/photos/micheleidesmith/

WHY DO
SKETCHNOTING?

Learning & Memory Paivio’s ‘Dual
Coding Theory’

Skills & Confidence Explore design
problems Communicate and collaborate with your team

GETTING STARTED

Tools of the trade

At the event • Get
a good seat with a clear view • Have your pens handy (it’s distracting for others if you scrabble around in your bag!)

Listening and live sketching •
Listen for key points you’ll want to re-visit* • Great quotes? What would you tweet? • What images pop into your head? Don’t be afraid to try sketching them. • Don’t stress if you don’t catch everything! *a good speaker lays out the structure of their talk at the start

Structure Path Molecule Grid Vertical
Clouds

People Lo-fidelity Hi(gher)-fidelity Expressive Different
body sizes Seated Active Hands Characterful

Objects

Containers

Dividers & Connectors Horizontal Curves
Connectors Shading adds emphasis

Typography

LET’S SKETCH!

Try creating a sketchnote! •
Now it’s your turn! • Let’s watch a short TED talk (6 m 51 s) • Listen for key quotes & important ideas Tom Wujec – Build a Tower, Build a Team www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower.html

Finishing Touches Add colour &
shading (I love Promarkers!)

Share Your Sketchnotes Take a
picture or Then share with people at the scan your notes event, or those tracking remotely!

Top 10 Tips 1. Practise
often! TED & UX talks, Meet Ups 2. Always carry a sketchbook & pens to events 3. Add title & speaker name before the talk, or leave space to complete them later 4. Think like a designer: structure & flow, proximity & grouping, size, colour & contrast 5. Don’t panic if you miss something! Transcribe 2-3 words, leave space & refer to slides later

Top 10 Tips 6. Watch
the time & space you have left 7. Use shading to turn mistakes into something else (or scan & edit in Photoshop!) 8. Add event name & Twitter handle 9. Don’t use reverse of pages & add a blank sheet between pages (prevent bleed through) 10. Relax, be creative & above all, enjoy yourself!

Useful Stuff! rohdesign.com/book/ sketchnotearmy.com flickr.com/groups/thesketchnotehandbook/
sunnibrown.com/doodlerevolution/

Get in touch! @micheleidesmith www.ide-smith.co.uk
e michele.ide-smith [at] red-gate [dot] com