Sketchnote from UX talk & reflections on my process

Todays speaker at the Preely meetup was Marie Køhnke, previously from In2Media and now freelancing. The key take away from the talk titled “Client do you actually want UX” was that UX’ers should not be afraid of posing big questions. According to her there are 7 things to consider if you want to have UX (see the circles on the left page). The case she used as an example was about innovating on how to change digital letters/digital communication from the government.

Reflection on my sketchnoting process today

Practicing my speed, I strive to be finished with the outlining + make grey shadows + colored border + take nice images at the events themselves. Sometimes I am still not quick enough though. Especially if I also spend time networking, which is still one of the main reasons why I go to these events in the first place.

As seen on the coverimage, the right image shows the slideshow of how Marie presented her 7 key points. I made them visual in my sketchnote, wanting to really remember them for later. Marie went over the 7 points rather quickly, and I spend a few extra seconds of thinking time boiling each point down to a bulletpoint understanding while she talked. As seen by the cover image I was not able to finish this part of the sketchnote live during the talk this time.

I admit that sometimes I still rely on my blue mechanical pencil for layouting, partly because I think better when it feels more like a sketch than a drawing. Although the “prettyness” of my sketchnotes is not my main priority at all, I still am a designer who loves whitespace. Getting whitespace and clustering successfully is much easier when I have a few blue lines to guide me. Sometimes more than a few. Sometimes I have to force myself to put down the pencil and only use the black outliner pen. Without the pencil for sketching, it sometimes still comes down to luck for me when I choose a layout. Practice, practice, practice will help.

What can I do to get better?

Practice doing different layouts for the same ted talk perhaps, and practice listening for clues to where the talk is going to go. My favourite talks take me by the hand and say what they will cover in the beginning. Makes my job much easier, when I have to fill out a spread in a sketchbook. If I use another format like a roll of paper, it is an entirely different process that I also want to practice.

To sum up I plan to practice:

  • Not using my mechanical pencil at all
  • Doing the same talk in different layouts (perhaps digitally?)
  • Use the format of an endless paper roll
  • Use the format of an A4
  • Use the format of my 12,9 inch Ipad screen