Learning visual note-taking

Here are a few notes on my first attempt at sketchnoting.
This is the result of a Visual Note-Taking exercise for IronHack UX/UI BootCamp Prework, May 2019 Session.

Solved: How Giant Websites Design For You!

The exercise :
— Watch Margaret Gould Stewart Ted Talks on how giant websites such as Google, Youtube and Facebook design for you, me and a sixth of the world population.
— Take written and visual notes while watching the video.
— Take pictures of the notes.
— Write about the experience.

Sketchnoting first appeared a little daunting to me.
I wondered how to concentrate on the content of the talk, take notes and sketch simultaneously.

Mike Rohde, author of “The Sketchnote Handbook” recommends researching on the speaker, the subject and to create a comprehensive title beforehand. Writing the title helped remove the pressure of a blank page. As he also recommend, I tried to emphasize information hierarchy with text size.

I had an idea of the companies Margaret Gould Stewart would focus on. I therefore decided to quickly draw the logos, just to get started on the sketching part of the exercise.

I started the video and notes started to flow, the sketches not so much. My mind was forming images but i had trouble putting them down on paper and concentrating at the same time. It was challenging but playful so I kept at it.

First attempt : lots of notes, not so many sketches…

Second Attempt: I have tried using a thinner tip pen for clarity which is not obvious. I worked a little more on the title.

Second attempt

I felt quite proud of the second attempt. I wrote a few notes on the experience and published the result.

For full disclosure, I published my story and went to check what other students had made. After seeing a lot of great work I felt compelled to delete my story and decided to go back to the drawing board, or more accurately to my notebook.

I felt I didn’t go far enough on the sketching part of the exercise.

Third attempt: I believe I need to work on my hand writing which make the whole thing a little messy.

On the third attempt, the ration notes vs sketches is a little more balanced. I believe that with practice, this method can be a great tool.

I am not quite sure if these can be read or understood by anyone but me.
I am however sure that my brain has retain more information using the sketchnoting method. I would happily go back and read this visual notes.

Thanks for reading, would love it if you have time for feedbacks :)