• Black Facebook Icon
  • Black Twitter Icon
  • Black Instagram Icon
  • Black LinkedIn Icon
  • BLOG

  • More

    HEALTH | DESIGN | ENTREPRENEURSHIP | LEADERSHIP

    FULL WEBSITE

    If Not for Health for America

    August 16, 2018

    “Think Differently,” Implement Differently

    August 16, 2018

    My One-Way Ticket to DC

    August 16, 2018

    Defining Innovation

    July 16, 2018

    Why Curiosity and Collaboration Can Change Health Care

    July 10, 2018

    Please reload

    Recent Posts

    SXSW: Sketchnoting

    March 25, 2015

    |

    Nick Azpiroz

     

    They say a picture is worth a thousand words and, with that in mind, one of my goals at SXSW 2015 was to make my note-taking a thousand times better. In her excellent workshop, Sketchnoting 101, Kate Hayward explained the many benefits that come from recording thoughts visually and how to feel more confident in illustrating one’s notes.

     

    We started off with some brain science, learning just how much better we are at processing images than words. Compared to the million connections between the eye and the brain, there are only around 30,000 dedicated to auditory signals. Among other things, this leads us to process images 60,000 times faster than words and retain information presented visually up to six times better than the written or spoken word.

     

    What’s more, you can communicate certain ideas much more accurately by drawing what you mean instead of trying to find the perfect words to describe it, since those words may end up meaning something different to other people anyway.

     

    But whether you want to draw or not, the idea of abandoning words for images can be intimidating. Perceived lack of artistic talent often stops would-be visual thinkers from ever putting pen to paper. To get started, Kate gave us some great tips to ease into the sketchnoting method:

     

    • Let go of perfection. Sketchnoting is about communication, not art. You don’t need to draw like Da Vinci to get across the idea of a person; all it takes is a stick figure.

    • Don’t draw faster than the speed of thought. By staying mindful of each stroke, one’s drawings become much better.

    • You only need 100 images to communicate more visually. By simply taking some time to develop a small visual vocabulary, many seemingly un-drawable concepts become easy to put on the page.

     

    We spent the rest of the time working together to come up with creative depictions of abstract ideas that we could all add to our arsenals, learning Dave Gray’s visual alphabet and other drawing tips and tricks, and practicing the technique over and over by taking notes on TED Talks.

    While I am still far from a sketchnoting master, I definitely saw myself improve greatly over the course of the 4 hour workshop. I even continued to practice while taking notes in subsequent SXSW sessions. And by forcing myself to ignore minutiae and to look for the main points that were worth spending time to draw, I actually felt like I internalized much more of each talk and captured a much better summary in my notebook.

     

    Though I’m not sure I’m ready to give up traditional note-taking completely just yet, especially when in a pinch to jot things down, I definitely plan to be much more visual in my everyday record keeping from now on.

    Tags:

    Nick Azpiroz

    SXSW

    Conference

    Design

    2014 - 2015 Fellows

    Please reload

    16-17Reflection

    1776

    2013 Summer Fellows

    2014 - 2015 Fellows

    2015 - 2016 Fellows

    2016-17Fellows

    2017-18Fellows

    A*Design

    AARP

    Abena Dakwahene

    Advice

    Airbnb

    Alumni

    Alumni Voices

    Amanda Newman

    Austin

    Awards

    Banyan

    Bonfire Impact

    Book

    Boston

    Brand

    CA

    Care at Hand

    Caregiving

    Case Foundation

    Chicago

    Childhood Asthma

    Children's Hospital

    Christiana Care

    Cleveland

    Cleveland Clinic

    Collision

    Conference

    Connected Health Conference

    Connected Health Symposium

    Curriculum

    DC

    Dan Hoff

    Delaware

    Design

    Design for America

    Dewey Winburne

    Diabetes

    Diabetes Technology Society

    Diet

    Disruptive Women in HealthCare

    Dr. Amie Hsia

    Dr. Mark Smith

    Dr. Michelle Magee

    Ellen Kourakos

    Empathy

    Entrepreneurship

    Exploration

    Fellowship

    FwdHealth

    Galva

    Gamefication

    Giving Tuesday

    Glenn L Means III

    HCD

    HFSA

    Hackathon

    Health

    Health Datapalooza

    Health Dispartities

    Heart Failure

    Huffington Post Contributor Series

    Human-centered Design

    HxRefactored

    IDEO

    IHI

    Ideation

    Implementation

    Innovation

    Integrative Medicine

    IntegrativeMedicine

    International Stroke Conference

    Interview

    Jake Vildibill

    James Dyson

    Jon Brilliant

    Kapil Parakh

    Kat Clark

    Katia Vlasova

    King John Pascual

    KnightCap

    LSM

    Landscape Analysis

    Lean Startup

    Lean Startup Conference

    Lean Startup Week

    Louisville

    MI2

    MI2 Forum

    MIT Media Lab

    Madhura Bhat

    Mandy Dorn

    May Paquete

    MedCity ENGAGE

    MedStar

    MedStar Health

    MedTech Boston

    Medical Innovation Summit

    Medication Management

    Meerkat

    Megan Caldwell

    Michael Mezher

    Miki Lendenmann

    Miki Templeton

    Millennials

    Mobile World Congress

    NYC

    Nashville

    Nemours Alfred I DuPont Hospital for Children

    New Orleans

    Nick Azpiroz

    Nurses

    Optum Las

    Partner

    Patient Engagement

    Patient Ping

    Paul Rosen

    Peace Corps

    Persona

    Prototyping

    Q & A

    Recruiting

    ReneeKakareka

    Research

    Rubicon MD

    SNAP

    SXSW

    San Francisco

    Sandra Hwang

    Sarah Struble

    Shadowing

    Sharing Economy

    SharonRodriguez

    SiTEL

    Simulation

    Social Impact Fund

    Startup Grind

    Stephanie Guang

    Story Exchange

    Stroke

    Telehealth

    Thanks

    The Next Web

    Travel

    Twitter

    UX

    Venture for America

    VentureWell

    Wearable Tech

    WellDoc

    WellRooted

    Women

    World Diabetes Conference

    World Housing Solution

    Yale

    eHI Innovation Showcase

    mHealth

    Please reload

    Search By Tags

    August 2018 (3)

    July 2018 (2)

    June 2018 (3)

    May 2018 (2)

    April 2018 (2)

    March 2018 (3)

    February 2018 (2)

    January 2018 (3)

    December 2017 (3)

    November 2017 (1)

    October 2017 (2)

    September 2017 (3)

    August 2017 (4)

    July 2017 (4)

    June 2017 (5)