Eva-Lotta is a Designer and Illustrator based in London, UK where she currently works as an interaction designer at Google.
Besides her daytime mission of making the web a more understandable, usable and delightful place, she regularly takes sketchnotes at all sorts of talks and conferences and recently self-published her second book.
Eva-Lotta also teaches sketching and is interested in exploring the area of Visual Improvisation – looking at the parallels between sketching and improvisation to explore how some of the principles from her regular theatre improvisation practice can be used to inspire visual work.
Sketching User Experience
Sketching is a crucial tool for designers to have in their skillset. It’s cheap, fast and easy to learn. Many design and product teams today have embraced sketching as part of their (agile) process.
In her talk, Eva-Lotta will first cover a few basics and explain how you can build on what you already know and do. She will talk about how you can refine your sketching skills and how to apply them more effectively, both on your own as well as when working with a group.
She will share examples, tips and thoughts on process, practicing and how to move beyond boxes and arrows to extend your sketching skills into richer forms of visual expression like storyboarding and sketchnoting.
Workshop: Visual Thinking through Sketchnoting
Sketchnotes – often created in realtime at lectures and conferences – are a way of capturing concepts in an engaging and visual way by combining the power of hand-drawn images, words and diagrams.
The technique itself is not new – artists and designers have captured their thoughts in a visual way for centuries – but recently, the interest and activity around sketchnotes and visual thinking in general has grown significantly – for a good reason. Humans are visual thinkers from birth so it’s only natural that we are attracted to visual explanations, particularly given the power they have to help solve problems, explore opportunities, and aid in understanding complexity.
This hands-on wokshop will provide you with the necessary skills, practice and inspiration to jump straight into creating your own visual notes and explanations.
We will start with an overview of key concepts and then move rapidly through a series of hands-on exercises interspersed with live demonstration, group reviews, and practical critique. This fun and informative session will equip you with a deeper understanding and lots of practice to memorably capture what you hear and see and how to communicate your ideas visually.
You will learn...
- how to sketch objects, people and emotions.
- how to build your own visual vocabulary
- how to express ideas and concepts through simple sketching
- how to create structure and establish visual hierarchy
- why sketchnotes are a great technique for designers to capture talks, meetings and their own thoughts while practicing their visual thinking skills in general
- how to overcome the challenges of sketchnoting live talks: how to deal with time pressure, structure, abstract concepts, etc.
- how to work with ‘mistakes’ and accept them as happy accidents
Who should sign up?
This workshop is ideal for Designers, Researchers, Product Managers or anyone who needs to capture and express concepts quickly and engagingly. The techniques taught in this workshop will provide you with a valuable communication tool to add to your arsenal.
All skill levels are welcome and no previous sketching skills or knowledge are necessary.