Sketchnoting looks childish – can it really be used professionally?

This is the third article in my series of short pieces on common questions I receive when talking about Sketchnoting.

Sketchnotes are those hand drawn visuals which make use of a mix of words and simple pictures and graphics to convey ideas. They can be used to capture and share notes at conferences and meetings, to summarise detailed information or for planning and reflection. I have been Sketchnoting now for nearly 10 years and when I am Sketchnoting at an event people are always curious about what on earth I am doing and come to chat to me about it.  I have had many fascinating conversations with people about Sketchnoting, how it can be used and what the benefits are of using it. Most people are full of admiration, encouragement and want to have a go, but occasionally I come across someone who expresses their concern that Sketchnoting wouldn’t be seen as ‘professional’ in their organisation.

I am always intrigued by this – is it that their organisation really wouldn’t see a tool such as Sketchnoting as professional and if so, what does this say about the organisational culture? Or is it that Sketchnoting with its use of drawing and images and often colour doesn’t fit with that individuals’ perception of what it means to be a professional?  Does the playful nature of Sketchnoting sometimes seem too ‘childish’ to be compatible with professional work?

Superficially, Sketchnoting seems to be all about creating eye-catching and fun visuals, but for me the benefit of using Sketchnoting goes far beyond their immediate attractiveness. What is key to the value of Sketchnoting is the impact that using a well-designed visual has on the ease of understanding complex information and then in making this information memorable. Both of these qualities of visuals were identified by Allan Paivio, who wrote about how much more ‘computational efficient’ a visual is at making understandable complex information compared to written or spoken information. With a well-designed graphic you can take in the whole information at once, whereas you often have to read and re-read a written passage to connect up the information – this is known as ‘The Visual Argument’ (see image below).

The combination of words and visual also have the advantage of making use of dual coding, in that each of these is separately coded in the brain, but linked together, so that the memory is richer and easier to recall.
As professionals we need to be able to make sense of increasing amounts of information, weigh this up and apply it to our work rapidly. I think that any tool which can aid us to communicate complex information more efficiently and effectively and which also makes information and ideas easier to remember is worth a place in a professional toolkit. Sketchnoting does this, and more, so why not make use of it?

Rachel Burnham

4 October 2024

I help individuals and organisations to use visuals to think, learn and work more effectively, particularly though using Sketchnoting and drawing.

 

Why do visuals work?

Rachel Burnham writes: A well-designed visual can be a powerful communication tool, which can be used to inform, inspire and as a guide to action.  They are a useful part of the toolkit for those in organisations, who want to communicate information & ideas, enable learning and support effective performance. 

So often visuals are used for purely decorative purposes – which is fine for plates and tea towels – but is a missed opportunity in learning.  And worse, using visuals purely for decorative purposes can be distracting and get in the way of learning by causing cognitive overload.  However, visuals used purposefully and particularly when used to explain are highly effective.

A well-designed visual can enable you to grasp the key points of a concept or process or practice all at once and also pick up details.   You can ‘see the big picture’ and also components within the main idea and how these fit together – it is ‘computational efficient’ compared to using just a written or verbal presentation.  An example of this is my recent Sketchnote on Psychological Safety, which in a single visual explores what this is, what it contributes too and what leaders can do to support this in their teams. When I shared this recently one person commented that this Sketchnote managed to set out on a single page, what others had taken 15 slides to explain.

The reason a well-designed visual works is that you are able take in all the key information synchronously ie at the same time, whereas written or spoken language is sequential and this requires you to work much harder to link the various pieces of information together. This is known as ‘The Visual Argument’ and comes from the work of Allan Paivio.

In addition, a visual is able to make use of the spatial arrangement on the page to convey elements of the information and we often find this an easy way to take in information, without having to work too hard for it.  For example, items physically closer together on the page are understood to be more closely related; arrows and location can indicate which items come first in a sequence; and bigger items are understood to be more important to physically smaller items.  

A well-designed visual can be particularly useful when you are new to a particular subject, as it helps you to build a mental model of the topic.   As you become more familiar, informed and experienced in a particular field, it becomes easier to build on and adapt your mental models to incorporate further details and nuances because you already have a sense of the area in question and can use your existing mental model as a scaffold to hook new ideas & information onto.  A great visual can help to shortcut this process.

Great visuals can also be useful if reading is not one of your strengths for example if you have dyslexia, or perhaps are working in a language that is not your first language.

Well-designed visuals can be used in many ways.  They could form the basis for a performance support tool – a practical guide to help people do a particular task or activity. They could be used as a way to present information & ideas and be accompanied by prompts to aid reflection & action.   A visual could be used as the basis for a discussion within a team or amongst a group of peers, as an alternative to a presentation.  The visual could be part of a wider package or stand alone.

 

If you would like to discuss more about how to use visuals effectively to aid learning, why not get in touch?   I am also working with Andrew Jacobs on a free Llarn Learning Clinic on Thursday 24 November 2022 at 11am on this subject – why not book a place? It would be great to see you there.

Rachel Burnham

3 November 2022

I help individuals and organisations to use visuals to think, learn and work more effectively, particularly though using Sketchnoting and drawing.

 

Why does Sketchnoting work? Exploring Dual Coding

Rachel Burnham writes: As I am spending more and more time Sketchnoting and introducing other people to Sketchnoting, I thought it would be useful to explore why I think it is such an effective tool, both when learning and in the workplace more widely.  Sketchnoting involves combining words and simple pictures for making personal notes, thinking things through and communicating ideas.  In a number of my previous blogs I have shared how Sketchnoting can be used to aid learning and studying.   I think one of the reasons it is a useful tool both for learning and thinking is that it makes use of Dual Coding.

Dual Coding Theory is the idea that when we take in material that is made up of both verbal (written or spoken) information and visuals (drawings, diagrams, photos), these are each separately coded within our brains, but form linked memories.  This means that when we come to recall the material, we have two sets of retrieval clues to draw upon – we might remember the words or the visuals – perhaps a picture or a diagram, the colour, the layout on the page and from this recall the fuller memory of the words and visuals. (You may be interested in the Learning Scientists Podcast on this subject.)

We know that our working memory is limited, so this is a great advantage to successful coding information to be stored in long term memory, which means that it is very useful for improving learning effectiveness. ‘According to dual coding theory, if the same information is properly offered to you in two different ways, it enables you to access more working memory capacity.’  (Caviglioli O, 2019 p20).

Allan Paivio developed Dual Coding Theory and wrote about it in several publications over a life time of studying memory, cognition and imagery.   His first major publication on this subject was ‘Imagery and Verbal Processes’ in 1971 and he continued to write and study it throughout his career as a Professor of Psychology at the University of Western Ontario.   (Intriguingly, he had early success as a bodybuilder and was a former Mr Canada.)  Dual coding has been extensively studied over the years and is supported by a body of research studies (for example Mayer, R E and Sims V K 1994).

I want to clearly distinguish the approach of dual coding theory from learning styles.   Learning styles theories, of which there are many approaches, are often interpreted to suggest that individuals have learning preferences, including for learning visually and that it is more effective to match the method of learning to someone’s learning preference.  However, the evidence from research does not support that matching the modality of method of learning to an individual’s learning preference leads to more effective learning. (Coffield et al 2004, Lee S 2017)

Instead, dual coding theory provides evidence that everyone can benefit from the effective use of visuals alongside verbal communication when learning. 

It is important to focus on the effective use of visuals, rather than just include any visuals.  We know for example that using visuals just as decorative features, can lead to cognitive overload and be a distraction to effective learning.  If I had chosen to illustrate this blog with a picture of Paivio in his bodybuilding days, this would have been an example of a particularly distracting use of a visual.  However, where visuals are used to aid explanation, through showing relationships, interpreting material and organising information and concepts they can be immensely powerful (Colvin Clark R and Kwinn A, 2007).  When we involve learners themselves in creating visuals, as happens with Sketchnoting, then we get really powerful learning, as learners create visuals to make sense of what they are learning. 

One limitation from the some of the studies of dual coding is that they often focus on learning applications where the material to be learned are in the context of language learning or relatively simple concepts. However, another aspect of Paivio’s work on dual coding is about how these two types of information – verbal and visual are taken in and this has led to another concept which is the idea of ‘The Visual Argument’ which has many application for more complex learning.  I want to explore this in another blog in this series.

Dual coding has applications to many aspects of effective learning aside from Sketchnoting.  We can make use of it throughout the design of both resources and learning programmes to make them more effective.   It deserves to be better known and used amongst L&D professionals in general.  However, it is at the core of why Sketchnoting works and why Sketchnoting is a great tool to support effective learning.

Rachel Burnham 

4 January 2021

 

Caviglionli, Oliver (2019) ‘Dual Coding with Teachers’ John Catt Educational

(Coffield, F et al (2004) ‘Learning Styles and Pedagogy in post – 16 learning: A systematic and critical review’ Learning and Skills Learning Research Centre

Colvin Clark, Ruth and Kwinn, Ann (2007) ‘The New Virtual Classroom’ Pfeiffer

Lee, S. (2017) ‘Raising EFL Learners' Awareness of L2 Lexical Errors and Correct Usage: A Dual Coding Approach’  English Teaching, 72(2), 29-50

Mayer, R E and Sims V K (1994) ‘For Whom is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? Extensions of a Dual-Coding Theory of Multi-media Learning’ in Journal of Educational Psychology 86(3) 389-401

 

I help individuals and organisations to work and learn more effectively, particularly though using the tools of Sketchnoting and the curation of resources.  I make use of Sketchnoting to introduce people to using visuals to aid thinking, working and learning.  I help people to manage for themselves the information they need to stay up-to-date in their professional work.