Visual Synthesis

Visual Synthesis is the practice of active listening, sense making, and illustration. In this exercise,
you and the illustrator (me!) get to engage
in conversation around the work you’re most passionate about.

HOW IT WORKS…

  1. We set up an hour to meet.

  2. This can be remotely or in person if we happen to be in the greater New York area. 

  3. I’ll have a script of questions about your area of research, recent published work, and/or project you’ve made public. This script will be circulated to you beforehand. 

  4. I’ll record my iPad screen (which I will be using to draw), and I’ll record the Zoom call. 

  5. We’ll go through some warmup questions, I’ll do some warm up drawings. 

  6. We’ll then jump into the actual questions. As we talk, I’ll be drawing what we’re discussing. 

  7. After the discussion, we’ll have a recording and visual artifact of our discussion. 

  8. I’ll edit the full session and send over the final transcript to you for review. 

  9. I’ll post the recording and the animated drawing online to share with friends and colleagues. 

Invited to participate?

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Here's what to expect

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Invited to participate? 〰️ Here's what to expect 〰️

Backstory

While I’m a seasoned user experience designer, the majority of my fulfillment in my work comes from talking with people. My initial research predominantly involves meeting subject matter experts and observing them in their work environment. As I interview, I keep notes of what I’m interpreting from the discussion. If you were to take a look at the final product, you would see a mix of quotes and more importantly -- sketches.

I don’t often have a chance to share these raw sketches with people– I might offer more polished work for them to review later; however, I think there’s something worth exploring in having the interviewee see the raw shape their stories can take. So that’s why I’m embarking on this form of visual synthesis.