Rachel Burnham writes: Many of us need to digest and make sense of detailed
and complex information such as regulations, health & safety requirements, project
plans and organisational policies as part of our work. And having got our own head around this
material, need to go on to convey this to others in a meaningful way.
Sketchnoting the key
points from this kind of material can help you to get to grips with it. Creating a Sketchnote is a dynamic process
that can help you to step back from the detail and identify the big picture –
the main story, if you like. Sketchnoting can help you to identify the most
important aspects of the information for your needs and map out how these
aspects are connected – arrows, proximity and size are often used to indicate
relationships within a Sketchnote. Sketchnotes
are versatile and can make use of a variety of different types of graphics –
flowcharts, simple illustrations, diagrams (such as Venn Diagrams or
Input/Output Diagrams), cartoons, plus words and even combinations of
these. By playing with different ways of
representing the key elements you can discover what best represents this
information. Working visually and on
paper is often easier – in a way the paper becomes an extension of your
brain. By Sketchnoting you can set out
your own understanding of complex information in a one page format.
Going through this process
in an iterative way can help you to identify your own gaps in understanding and
enable you to focus your efforts to get further clarity.
By making visible
your understanding, you can also use this to test out with other colleagues and
stakeholders, how your understanding compares to theirs, making it much easier
to develop a shared and more rounded understanding of the information and
insights from it.
Once you and other
stakeholders are happy that your Sketchnote represents a helpful summary of the
information, you can use this as a basis for communicating with others. You could use the Sketchnote as a summary or
introduction to the more detailed original information. A Sketchnote could be used as a talking
point within a presentation or learning programme or could be used as a curated
resource conveying the key information, with access to the detailed material
for those who require it.
Sketchnotes are often
experienced as a more engaging and accessible way into a topic. And for complex or detailed information they
can be computational more efficient because they summarise the material in a
single page and so allow people to access the main points more easily.
If you would like to
learn to Sketchnote why not book a place at my online ‘Thinking Differently:Introduction to Sketchnoting’ workshop?
Rachel Burnham
3 February 2023
I help individuals and organisations to use visuals to think, learn and work more effectively, particularly though using Sketchnoting and drawing
