Human lessons from the back of the napkin
by Kate RutterTuesday’s event with Dan Roam was a lot of fun. He joined us at Adaptive Path to speak about his book The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. Dan is a warm, funny speaker with a wealth of stories about using pictures to solve complex problems ranging from business strategy to product design. You can see some of the photos from the event on Flickr.
I sketchnoted Dan’s talk to capture many of the ideas that he talked about. There was a lot of great info, but the phrase that stuck with me most was “The more human the picture, the more human the response.”
I think this is a wildly compelling idea. By making pictures by hand, we open up the minds of the people we are communicating with, so that they can share in these ideas. Hand-drawn images are imperfect, gestural and natural. And it’s these human qualities that make them so engaging and accessible to others.
I hear designers and strategists talk about communicating design concepts, and one theme that comes up again and again is to match the fidelity of the artifact with the nature of the feedback you are looking for. The general rule of thumb is:
- Low fidelity = High-level feedback
- High fidelity = detailed/low-level feedback
If you’ve ever presented a well-rendered, detailed illustration to communicate a rough concept and been frustrated that the feedback is more along the lines of “that’s not a good typeface” or “that data is incorrect,” then sketching may be just the tool you need.
Simple, hand-drawn pictures can’t escape their low-fi quality. Yet I think their appeal is about more than just being low-fi. People are messy and complex. Perfection may be an aspiration, but when we actually encounter things that seem “perfect” we often suspect they’re fake. Hand-crafted objects feel more authentic than manufactured ones. As human beings, we respond to natural, imperfect things with more empathy that we do to polished perfection.
Authentic, imperfect, natural, gestural. That’s a great list of design criteria. I’m all for making more human pictures that invite a more human response.
September 25th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Looks a lot like Ink Seine from a Microsoft subset. http://research.microsoft.com/inkseine/FAQ.html
Steve
September 26th, 2008 at 2:10 am
I wonder if the natural state of sketch opens pathways to our emotional response and thus gets us thinking in a different way. Thinking from whatever part of the brain that is, in my opinion, returns more successful ideas.
I think Einstein said that ‘problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them’.
September 27th, 2008 at 5:20 am
[...] On Tuesday night I slipped out of the OOW bubble — this was tough to do as it was a pretty huge bubble — down to see a friend who works at Adaptive Path. She was hosting Dan Roam, who gave a killer talk about napkin sketches. [...]
September 29th, 2008 at 5:49 am
[...] Human lessons from the back of the napkin : En bref, plus le prototype (ou les maquettes schématiques) sont de haute fidélité, moins le feedback obtenu du client est pertinent. J’aime bien l’idée, à explorer et intégrer aux pratiques. [...]
September 30th, 2008 at 4:43 am
[...] of our work along the way, allowing the client to provide feedback at the right level. It follows a nice observation made by Kate Rutter over on the Adaptive Path blog recently: “Low fidelity = High-level feedback, High fidelity = [...]
September 30th, 2008 at 7:43 am
[...] in Costa Rica to establish sustainable coffee farming. Adaptive Path is really good about this. This post describes the merits of simple presentation styles using hand-drawn graphics. Reminds me of Common [...]
October 20th, 2008 at 7:02 am
Kate, I just discovered your blog and your post about your visit with Dan Roam. Your comment, “The more human the picture, the more human the response”, stuck with me.
Recently I began working on a Squidoo lens, a web directory, about how entrepreneurs can use the concepts of The Back of the Napkin to discover, develop, and sell entrepreneurial ideas. While working on the materials, I came across your sketch on Flickr. I stopped in my tracks when I saw your sketch. You have an amazingly human sketch that thrills the eyes and the heart, even if one can’t see the details of your comments. So, I think your sketch proves the very point you make in your blog.
Thank you for sharing this with us in such a compelling manner.
Shallie Bey
Smarter Small Business Blog
October 20th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Thanks, all for the comments. It’s a great time in business for people that love the pictorial thinkyness side of life. Shallie, you made me blush with your sweet words. I’ll be sure to check out your blog.