Post2Post Virtual Book Tour: The Back of the Napkin.
For Design Crush readers let me fill you in a little: Idea Sandbox’s Post2Post Tour is a web-based book tour where authors and their books are connected with websites and readers. For five business days, making five stops, the author moves from one site to the next – discussing with the web hosts and readers – the book, the big idea, and other items of interest. And for those of you visiting Design Crush for the first time: Welcome!
A graphic designer by trade, this philosophy has intrigued to me to say the least. What about my Photoshop? My Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver? Surely I can accomplish more than someone who’s never so much as drawn a line.
According to Roam, solving problems has absolutely nothing to do with drawing pictures or innate artistic ability. In fact, sometimes those who have those talents struggle the most. The process of visual thinking is comprised of four steps, each of which we’re already good at. Looking, seeing, imagining and showing.
Visual thinking means taking advantage of our innate ability to see – both with our eyes and with our mind’s eye – in order to discover ideas that are otherwise invisible, develop those ideas quickly and intuitively, and then share those ideas with other people in a way they simply “get.”
Ideas govern our world. Imagine if Aristotle or Socrates hadn’t been able to get their ideas across – we’d be screwed! We’ve all imagined fantastic ideas, but unless we can successfully convey them to others, the value and possibilitiy of our ideas may never be known. Everyone’s drawn on a bar napkin at some point, whether it be to sketch your Next Big Idea or to give your phone number to that hottie sitting at the other end of the bar. And according to Roam, that’s as complicated as it needs to get.
With this process, as with so many others, there will be times when the steps don’t flow 1-2-3-4. Sometimes we’ll even need to go back and make changes. This happens most frequently with Look and See which constantly feed off one another. But if we’ve successfully shared our idea and done the job right, the people we are showing work to will immediately start their own visual thinking process. And so the cycle begins.
As I said in the beginning, I’m a creative-minded person by nature, so I was really quite interested in how this book could possibly effect me. I can draw, so surely I can get my ideas across. Or so I thought. My main takeaway is that bigger isn’t always better. Just because I have the capabilities some others might lack artistically or in the computer department doesn’t make me a better communicator. Simple is best when it comes to getting your point across. It also leaves more room for the people you are sharing you idea with to expound upon the initial thought.
Check out the other stops in the Post2Post Tour: The Back of the Napkin!
Monday, March 17:
Jeff De Cagna
Principled Innovation Blog
Tuesday, March 18:
Peter Durand
The Center for Graphic Facilitation
Chris McCrory
Kennen, LLC
Friday, March 21:
Keith Bohanna
Pureplay
And if you’re still thirsty for more stop by The Back of the Napkin blog for the inside scoop.
Kati
March 19, 2008 at 3:14 pmReally neat idea and a wonderful post!
Paul (from Idea Sandbox)
March 19, 2008 at 3:58 pmGreat post, Kelly!
One of the things I got out of the book is starting on something as casual as the back of a napkin reduces the loftiness of a project.
They say a blank sheet of paper can be intimidating, but I find a blank Illustrator file pretty daunting at times.
So by breaking the problem to the bare elements… (1) look at what I’ve got… (2) see what’s there… (3) imagine what could be… I finally get to that last stage… “show” and I have been finding myself more confident in creating my design…
Thanks so much for your participation in the virtual tour!
Chris Wilson
March 19, 2008 at 4:00 pmWhat an open and honest review. I love the naked feelings of this post.
I think you are right, bigger isn’t always better. In fact, when we have more knowledge or skills than the audience we are trying to communicate to, sometimes that can actually get in the way of the message we are trying to get across.
It’s the curse of knowledge, the tendency to get too deep in subject matter to the point where we are talking over the heads of the audience, or even presenting in a way that leaves them questioning how something was done instead of understanding the important concepts.
Maybe all we need is a quick sketch on the back of a napkin.
Monica
March 31, 2008 at 5:37 pmAs a math major, we were often told to “draw” out a word problem if we couldn’t quite figure out the answer.
Turns out all my teachers were right.
This looks like a fun book, and now that I’m more writer than mathematician, it seems even more applicable to my needs.