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Information Architecture, Interaction Design, User Experience Design, Visual Design

Drawing is Not Just for Designers April 16th, 2010

Liz Odar

Liz Odar

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Dan Roam gave the opening keynote at the IA Summit 2010 in Phoenix.  His premise was this:  “Whoever best describes the problem is the one most likely to solve it.”  In other words:  Whoever draws the best picture gets the funding.

That may sound disheartening, but he’s not talking about works of art here.  Dan believes that basic shapes and stick figures can illustrate what the problem is and what the solution can be.  He showed a series of examples where powerful ideas were drawn out in simple shapes on the back of napkins – like the sketch that started Southwest Airlines or a graph that ended up being the idea behind Reaganomics.

Dan summarized the ways in which our brains process visual information and then outlined the types of sketches that can be used to answer relevant questions as we try to solve a problem. Here’s how he broke it down:

The 6 ways we See: How to sketch what we see:
Who and What? Portraits
Where? Maps
How? Flowcharts
How many? Charts
When? Timeline
Why? Equation

Or even better, here it is explained in pictures.

The conclusion is that if you can draw these 6 basic types of sketches, you can describe any problem for your audience.  This was very encouraging, especially to someone who has always been envious of the visualization skills of designers.  I used to think that designers had an advantage when describing problems and solutions because of the beautiful ways they can draw and use other imagery to support their findings.  I even took several classes at a local design school to develop skills to help me improve in this area.  But seeing examples of successful ideas that were drawn with simple shapes has made me rethink how we should be describing design and interaction problems.  The most effective drawing may not be elegant or pretty, but it will be the one that is succinctly stated and quickly grasped by your audience.

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