Sketchnoting
Filtering complex information into simple visuals.
WHY?
I started making sketchnotes to help me remember interesting things from books, talks and events. I struggle to make longhand or typewritten notes — I can’t listen and process and type. By the time I have written anything, the story has moved on, and I have lost the thread. I also find it easier to imagine and plan future projects using visuals rather than typing. When I draw, I can process information in parallel and make connections between what I am hearing, thinking and drawing. This seems to work for recalling from visual notes too. It is estimated that we can recall 65% of information taken in visually — much more than from text or speech.
At Open Change we introduce simple visualisation to many of our clients. Visualisation helps people to quickly:
share ideas and information
get everyone ‘on the same page’
stop talking and start ‘doing’
I recently talked to Cathy Haynes from Scriberia https://bit.ly/Hazel_Scriberia about how Visual Thinking gives us humanity, clarity and childlike curiosity — you can read the interview here: https://bit.ly/Hazel_Scriberia
In Novenber 2020 I did a Pecha Kucha talk for Creative Dundee (20 slides/20 second each) where I talked about “Drawing as a first language’ — where I argued that drawing democracises conversation — a Chief Executive and an eight year old can communicate on a level playing field. You can watch the short video below.
In the video I talk about working with NHS clinicians to produce ‘visual explainers’ and videos for training and education about Covid-19. These have been used on public health websites, in Scottish Government palliative care guidelines and to introduce junior doctors to talking about dying. They communicate complex information in a way that sticks with people who are very short of time.
It is not about making beautiful pictures, it is to help process information. And it’s not all about drawing — a large part of my sketchnotes are handwritten bullet points in capital letters. I try to be fast imperfect — if I’m taking notes for myself at an event — I like to get them on twitter as the applause for the speaker is fading. If I’m doing them for a client, I do a fast first draft, so we’ve got something tangible to talk about, then we’ll go through multiple drafts.
fast imperfect: do things quickly, not perfectly
Drawing is a filtering process, and helps get to the essence of what needs communicated. We work back and forth - often with their message being honed in parallel to me refining my sketchnotes.
HOW?
A pen you love on paper you like is crucial. I use an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil — but for years I used a fine liner pen on any paper I had to hand. I use the GoodNotes App — it’s fairly basic, which suits me as I have a pretty minimal style. Thinking about hierarchies of information, composition and how the information flows is important.
I am mindful not everyone finds visuals easy to read. We often produce them in conjunction with a voiced over subtitled video, so there are multiple ways of assimilating information.
TOP TIPS
If you are interested in getting started in sketchnoting:
- Visual Thinking is a great book for someone starting out
- Online videos — Ole Qvist-Sørensen’s TED talk is great
- Pinterest has lots of templates in different styles
- Fast Imperfect — work quickly, and draw things again and again— that’s how you improve
- Make a sketchnote to explain something to someone else
- Find your own style — be inspired, but don’t copy
RESOURCES
Useful books and meet-ups
Visual Collaboration Loa Baastrup and Ole Qvist- Sorensen
Visual Thinking and Visual Doing by Willemien Brand are brilliant
https://sketchnotehangout.com with the amazing Dr Makayla Lewis
Scriberia Ink to Think Course and their fabulous Diploma course — both of which I have participated in and can highly recommend.
BuroBrand also run excellent courses — I’ve done te Business Drawing one.
Scotviz run excellent meetup events
Search ‘sketchnotes’ on Pinterest
See Hazel’s sketchnotes on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hazelonewhite/
Hazel’s sketchnotes on Stress, Coping and Resilience;
Difficult Conversations: Why we need to talk about dying,
Care Homes and Coronavirus and Gender Based Violence are available on NHS Scotland Education’s TURAS Learning Zone: https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/741/quality-improvement-zone
