If you’ve been following our posts here, you’ll have noticed that we love sketching. As a UX designer, being able to sketch quickly and confidently can come in handy in all kinds of situations—storyboarding, wireframing, fleshing out interaction models, or even just to aid communication with others, remotely or in a face-to-face meeting; on paper or on a whiteboard. We all have our own way of visualising concepts, but sketching them in front of everyone reduces the possibility that these visualisations are wildly different.
I also find sketching to be a natural reflex when I’m listening to a presentation, such as those at conferences. Taking visual notes is my way of listening attentively, processing what the speaker is saying, and increasing my own retention of the content being presented.
On Friday I attended the first day of Darren Rowse‘s ProBlogger Training Event here in Melbourne. Although I could only make it to one day, the presentations I saw were terrific. As usual, I sketchnoted them.
I put a bit more effort into the polish of these sketches than I have in the past, incorporating the orange and grey of the ProBlogger logo to add highlights and extra shading detail. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, although adding these finishing touches did take a bit longer than I anticipated! See what you think:
If you like these sketches, you may like my sketchnotes from UX Australia 2012 or Swipe Conference 2012. Also, be sure to check out Sketchnoting 101: How To Create Awesome Visual Notes.