Last week I submitted an entry for the Core77 1hr+ Design Challenge: The Future of Digital Reading. This is the first time I’ve ever participated in one of these challenges. I was intrigued by the premise of the exercise and by the juicy research results presented by Portigal Consulting. The task was to familiarize myself with the research and then spend 90 minutes creating and communicating visions of the future of digital reading.

So I set aside an evening to review the research materials and do some design. It turned out to be a very rewarding and educational experience. Here are a few of the things that I learned:

1. My moleskine is not the best medium for concept illustration—get big paper. Once I started my design time, I immediately started sketching. I spent the vast majority of my time sketching and brainstorming over pages and pages in my notebook. My 90 minutes was broken into two stints (more on that below), so it went by pretty quickly, especially with time lost to context switching. I figured I could just cull the best sketches from my notebook and upload them with my submission. But once I started actually putting that together, I could see that it wasn’t going to be great. I’ll know for next time that I need to design an upload document for communication, not just proof of an idea.
2. Make sure the design time is uninterrupted. 90 minutes is better spent without a 3 hour break in the middle. Unforeseen issues arose during the evening that necessitated a long break in the middle of my design time. Everything worked out fine in the end, but it definitely threw my mind out of the exercise. I would really have loved to have restarted my 90 minutes after I could get back to it, but I believe in playing by the rules. Next time I will do my best to shelter my design time and protect the ultra-valuable flow.
3. Doing the write-up takes longer than I think it will. I left some of my 90 minutes for the write-up and uploading, but I’ll be honest—I definitely took way longer with that than I had allocated. And here I just said how rule-abiding I am! I really hope the writing time is not meant to be included in the 90 minutes. Regardless, I need to get better at estimating how long I need for writing. Having this blog is helping, but I’ve still got a ways to go.
4. Just Do It! It was a great experience to rip myself out of refinement cycles and just put something out there. The thought, “this isn’t good enough—you can’t put this online!” went through my head more than a couple of times. Again, to be totally honest, it still happens. But the beauty of this challenge is the time limit. I COULDN’T scrap it and start over, or obsess about little details, or stay up all night to get it just right. And neither could anyone else—no one is expecting pixel perfection from a one hour (plus) challenge. So I got to keep telling that voice to shove it, and I got valuable and cathartic practice shipping my work.

Here is my submission: Separating the Book’s Brain from Its Body. Thank you, Core77 and Portigal Consulting, and I’m already looking forward to the next 1hr Design Challenge!

I first became aware of sketchnotes when someone on Twitter posted a link to Mike Rohde’s SXSWi sketchnotes. I was blown away. I had never seen notes like that before. These are a joy to look at, a far cry from the scribbled mess that my notes usually are. And so expressive! They gave me a real feeling for the full experience event, not just for the content. I learned more about SXSWi from these notes than from any of the blog recaps I encountered. Not to mention the fact that the design and aesthetics of them makes them simply more fun to read than most blog posts.

Seeing these notes, I cringingly remembered the notes I took during IXD’09 which I’ve only wanted to look back on once or twice, and I experienced some serious note-taking skill envy! So when I saw that VizThink was offering a VizThinkU webinar on sketchnoting with Mike Rohde and Austin Kleon (someone who I follow on Twitter and whose work I admire) I didn’t pass up the opportunity.

The webinar started with Austin teaching some sketching fundamentals like how to draw a better stick figure, easy rules for different facial expressions and expressive figures. Mike talked about his experience and process and shared some tips for taking sketchnotes during a conference. Sunni Brown closed the webinar by talking about being a graphic recorder and facilitator for group meetings. It was interesting to hear their (sometimes very different) perspective on the practice or taking graphic notes, and it was inspiring to watch them create their own during the course of the class.

I sketchnoted along with the whole thing, and I swear could feel my brain unfolding and opening up creatively as I was doing it. It was an immensely valuable experience for me, and now I take sketchnotes whenever I’m taking notes during a meeting or presentation. It has DRASTICALLY changed the quality of my notes, and  possibly even the quality of my engagement with the content.

Below you can see my notes from the class. They’re not perfect, but they still make me happy, and I’ll never go back to my old note style again!