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.