Naintara Land & Caroline Jarrett – Bringing concepts to life through visualisation

Slides

Slides

Have you seen an illustrated journey map and thought “I wish I could do that?” Here’s your chance. Tara will teach us some ‘no skills required’ techniques that get you started. We’ll use the techniques on a real-life challenge: a ‘topic map for forms design’ that Caroline needs for NHS Digital.

A visual, illustrated journey map can be a compelling way to engage stakeholders and colleagues in the designs that we are aiming for.

For example, PWC recently published this illustrated map which manages to make some rather ordinary suggestions (“simplify your architecture”) look engaging.

In this workshop, we’ll get people at the workshop started with some easy illustration techniques that are available for everyone, irrespective of their level of confidence with drawing. We expect these will include: – Six-segment visual storyboarding – Sketching by tracing – Scavenging images from magazines and other existing materials – Using minimal ‘stick person’ cartoons

We will set a specific challenge of producing an engaging visual explanation of a new ‘topic map for better forms design’ that Caroline is currently developing for NHS Digital.

The techniques are likely to be familiar to anyone who has tried visualisation or sketching previously. We believe that even people who are experienced at drawing, sketching or visualisation will enjoy a real-life challenge and practising their skills with others who are learning.

About Tara

Tara has been using sketching and visualisation techniques as part of her professional work for ages. For example, she created the only GOV.UK blog post that consists solely of doodles and provided illustrations for many others. Recently, she created an illustrated journey map for Atlassian (proprietary).

About Caroline

Caroline is a beginner at sketching and her sketches frequently resemble demented chicken-scratching, so she is keen to learn. She also happens to need a compelling map right now and thought that attendees would enjoy creating something that will actually be used.