Sketchnotes on a Phone or Tablet from @goingmobo

Here's an interesting article from Jenz Johnson, on how he has adapted the idea of sketchnoting to using a phone or table to capture them.

Jenz writes:

Doing sketchnotes on a smartphone was easy. The tagging, typing and linking took all of five minutes, and was good review for me. This may not have the same feel or be the same experience as using paper and pen, but I found it to be an excellent way to take notes and visualize the talk in real-time.

Here are some sample digital sketchnotes by Jenz:

 

Commentary from Mike

Personally, I've challenged myself to find a good way to use an iPad for sketchnoting this year. It is a little different and Jenz is right on that the stylus really makes a difference. My favorite are the Adonit Jot and Stylus Sock Pro.

Also, I need to adapt to the quantity of ideas per page. With a pocket Moleskine, I can fit quite a bit of information on a 2-page spread because of the control I have with a pen. With an iPad, unless I want to zoom in and out (which I want to avoid) it's a much lower detail per page because of the resolution.

I think my approach needs to change to capturing fewer ideas per page, instead of trying to map my pen and paper experience to the iPad — accepting the device for what it is. My friend Craighton Berman did this with his SXSW 2012 Sketchnotes and for Milan Design Week 2010 — I've always admired his approach:

If you have feedback on your own digital sketchnoting process, let us know!

Growing as a Sketchnoter: Tips from @sachac

My friend and fellow sketchnoter Sacha Chua had a great sketchnote and post in December last year that I think is a great reference — Tips for growing as a sketchnoter for anyone starting to sketchnote and wanting to grow in their practice.

Sacha writes:

New to sketchnoting? Aside from reading Mike Rohde’s The Sketchnote Handbook (see my sketchnote of it!) and Dan Roam’s Back of the Napkin, how else can you grow your skills? Here are some ideas from how I keep working on improving my sketchnoting. Hope you find them useful!

Thanks Sacha!

First Sketchnotes: Virginia Poltrack @VPoltrack

I'm starting a new category on Sketchnote Army called First Sketchnotes, where I feature the first sketchnotes that someone has done — both new and seasoned sketchnoters. This is to celebrate new sketchnoters, to remind everyone that we all start somewhere and to help us remember that sketchnoting is a journey.

Our first First Sketchnote feature is designer, illustrator and coder Virginia Poltrack, who reached out to me on Twitter after seeing and reading The Sketchnote Handbook. She gave sketchnoting a try and posted her work on Twitter.

Below are samples of her sketchnote work:

My 1st sketch noting attempt, video of a TED talk. @rohdesign up for critique! twitter.com/VPoltrack/stat…

— Virginia Poltrack (@VPoltrack) March 14, 2013

2nd sketch noting attempt, @rohdesign also up for critique! :) twitter.com/VPoltrack/stat…

— Virginia Poltrack (@VPoltrack) March 14, 2013

See more work from Virginia at her website, Dribble and Flickr accounts.

Great job Virginia!

Interaction 2013 Sketchnotes from @bysusanlin @justsomeguy and @ryancoleman

IxD13 happened a little while ago, but I didn't want to miss sharing Interaction 13 sketchnotes here. Below are works from different sketchnoters — if you have sketchnotes from IxD13, let us know and we'll add you.

Susan Lin

I love the fluid, sketchy feel of Susan Lin's sketchnotes. Check out Susan's website, Twitter and Flickr account.

Jason Alderman

Jason's sketchnotes have a great amount of detail and a cool look with the pink highlight. Check out Jason's Twitter and Flickr account.

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman has very well structure sketchnotes with lots of detail. Check out Ryan's website, Twitter and Flickr account.

Vizbi 2013 Sketchnotes from @francisrowland

Vizbi was a conference for visualizing biological data at The Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our friend Francis Rowland taught a tutorial on UX design and sketchnoted the event. Here are photos of the workshop and the sketchnotes Francis captured.

See Fracnis' full Vizbi set on Flickr!