Sketchnoting 101: How to create awesome visual notes
Half day workshop. Wednesday 27 August 2014, afternoon
Description
This workshop covers everything to empower you to create rich, memorable visual notes during the main UX Australia conference and beyond.
Reading a book or looking at someone else’s notes won’t help you improve your own sketchnoting skills – to become a great sketchnoter, you need to roll up your sleeves and practice. A workshop is the perfect opportunity to refine your visual note-taking skills, with expert guidance.
What you’ll learn
This workshop is an opportunity for you to:
- learn about sketchnoting: what it is and why it matters
- understand the anatomy of a sketchnote, and revisit some drawing, layout, and typography basics
- improve your visual vocabulary
- appreciate and practice metaphor in visual note-taking
- learn and apply different techniques in a live sketching session
How this is relevant to UX
This workshop isn’t just about learning to sketchnote at the conference. It is also relevant to UX because:
- UX designers are generally interested in drawing and communicating.
- Sketchnoting and UX Design require similar skills: listening, processing, sketching.
- The reason visual notes are a fun and effective tool comes down to psychology – and anything related to psychology is good for UXers.
- Same goes for sketching – the success of Bill Buxton’s sketching book is testament to the notion that UXers all want to be able to sketch better.
Workshop structure
This will be a very hands-on workshop. While there will be some theory for each section, the majority of the time will be spent sketching – individually, in pairs, and as a group.
Target audience
Anyone who wants to improve their visual note-taking skills. You don’t need to be able to draw – in fact, the lower your confidence in drawing, the more you’re likely to get out of the course. However, you do need to come prepared to have a go!
What you’ll take away
You’ll leave with:
- Summary sheets (content in the form of sketchnotes, naturally)
- Worksheets (used throughout the day)
