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Layout Design: The List

Lesson 9 from: Visual Notetaking: A Beginner's Guide to Sketchnotes

Giselle Chow

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Lesson Info

9. Layout Design: The List

Lesson Info

Layout Design: The List

Let's talk a bit about the list so we're gonna go over to formats um that can really help you organize information their advantages and disadvantages to both so first we're going to talk about the list um I'm gonna have a conversation with kevin actually where he's going to be giving me some information I'm going to be creating a list from it and then we'll talk about it the list uh shows the sequence of response is that you get so first come and said this and he said this and he said this that's what it shows shows a flow of ideas okay? It doesn't inherently show relationships and connections between those ideas they'll show the order in which he said things but it doesn't show how they're related that's not necessarily a bad thing it's just something to be aware of when you're thinking about a list okay um I call in my mind I called the list the workhorse you know like the list is really reliable it always works you know it always does its job um you will be able to record a lot of i...

nformation with the list you'll be able teo stay pretty true to what people are saying you'll be able to capture a lot the disadvantage is it can get tedious if you have nothing but lists right list after list after list um it's difficult to see what's really important in many many pages of lists okay, so what we're going to do now is um I will have a five minute conversation with kevin who has generously volunteered thank you and the question um kevin do you live here in the bay area from time just go okay, so we've got now the way we will talk about kevin's from san francisco his question is what are some of the places that you like to show out of town folks or friends when they visit like how do you show off san francisco okay, so I'm gonna ask him that question he's going to speak to it we're gonna have a conversation I'm going to create um a list from what he told me and then we're gonna talk a bit about it. Okay um some feedback in some insights all right, so um what did us we'll talk about later but let me, uh get set up here. So so the title for this is where do you take it out of town guests and this is by our friend came in and then also we know this is in san francisco so I will somehow do that and folks who were here folks who are at home watching us feel free to fall along create your own list on a piece of paper markers listen to what he says and we will do this together okay and then let's say we're talking about in san francisco are you thinking coming? Yeah, you got yeah, yeah, just a few rightful, but I've taken around before you take around people. Does that happen? Yeah does have family that they're not from here have a lot of friends from school that come to visit, ok? And then they've never been here, so I take them to what I think are the interesting points. Okay, so what are some of the the spots that you've taken one of the favorite spots I bring people to is called the morago stairs haha and that's a mosaic staircase. I'm not sure how many stairs, but it has a picture of there's an underwater section of it and it goes into ah, sun and the moon uh, leads up to this not in top that's called turtle hill I think what is it called? Turtle hill? Turtle hill there's a view of most of the city from there. So that shows you can see they're going gate bridge from on top of that hill it's a nice, peaceful place to kind of begin showing off the city so people get an overview of what's there. They also see golden gate park that's another place you bring them or they can say they can see it there there yeah, yeah, way eventually get there that someone from the pontell hill, yeah where are the morago stairs? Is that in the sunset? Is it fogging up there? Do you ever bring people up there and you realize it's super funny people can't see anything not when I've brought people but when I got there about myself it's been foggy so yeah, I guess people get, like one of the strange occurrences that when people come to the sea they're going get bridgette's often reigning there I don't know, I just it's been raining it's usually raining for sam's when people visit, but that's there, there look right? So you do that is a separate tripper. Like after yeah, so after we goto toho, usually we'll make a way to go on gate park on they have paddle boats there, right? So you can rent these kinds of boats and go around that lake kind of get the nature vibes that the old boathouse? Yeah, there's still like full house. So that's where you can rent the boats right? Uh then from golden gate park there's a bus that goes to the golden gate bridge so you can take a bus that goes directly over a public bus. Twenty twenty? Yeah, that's convenient to get people to. I think the main attraction that people want to see is the bridge that's, one of the things right, right and then usually from the getting from the bridge we go to the downtown side you have this all you've got like a full day this is like your so after you do after you do going gate bridge yeah then we'll go downtown okay it's not like market street going towards like embarcadero so easy walk down market street we'll take a bus there um then we'll get to the ferry building which is at the end of market street on that connects to the embarcadero and then you people usually want to sea fisherman's war for pier thirty nine so we'll go there and there's a lot of attractions one of the famous attractions over theirs booting bakery has calm tucker and another thing that's there there's the think they're sea lions what is it they're sea lions they like they are on these docks and they're like just jump up there and you can watch the sea lions yeah you're challenging me with the iconography here I don't know what these things look like they're a little bit sloppier than that aren't they they're usually not sitting up there using were like okay are they still there sometimes they they're not yeah I heard that depend coming go right yeah and then actually on the way going to fisherman's warf from the ferry building there's a place called the exploratorium which people in between the very building and fisherman's were yeah people don't always want to go there but it's ah science museum that's interactive this's a big day kevin you're tired fallon will always complain that we have to walk too much just everything on foot um so that's that could be one day there's other things that we could do okay alright would you like more know nothing okay thank you nice job thank you alright so if that was the conversation that we had what I would do after what he ended up doing what I anticipated doing was create like a list like a column but then he asked actually started talking about these locations right did you notice that we're connected in these different ways so um I am going teo actually kind of finish up and do some things but I would also like to hear from you um what you noticed um yeah what you noticed around what I did okay and then we'll talk about some conventions so what did you notice my backers mean toward you while you talk that's okay just take turns and just yeah I think you started out going geographically but then it was difficult because the location's kept changing so it started out like a math and then it's not geographically accurate scene yeah what else? The way that you're able to follow the shape of the conversation is it was emerging and you have many years of experience at this what do you what could you reckon the question but I'm intrigued that this didn't feel like the list that I expected to come out of it which would have been sequenced and I don't I wouldn't know where where the branching off part would need to start right but here's a question for you so did I capture what he said in sequence as he said it I'm adding these numbers here which he did not say number seven I would do this right but it also helps with understanding the sequence fred it shows a flow of ideas a sequence is it still a list even those on in columns yeah yeah it seems like you're going back retroactively and making it into a list by using the numbers but because because you because he sort of departed in in process from what you were anticipating with like a bulleted process on dso you're compensating for that now by making it really clear that by sequencing these this map whereas if he if he had probably known what he had been doing that he wasn't gonna go for a list you might have actually gone for a more mapped approach to begin with so what kevin is he described for me a whole day like a whole like kevin's except tour which you should like a trademark and door but so when I was thinking he was going to dio is give me a list like I like to take people to the stairs I like to take people to the exploratorium because like this, I like to take people to that, but he created a whole experience, right? Ah, whole day. So I realized, wait, he's going this different direction. But then I realized as we were talking, I could still create a sense of a flow because he was actually listing things that would happen in sequence within a single day. Okay, okay, yeah. Anything else that you noticed? Well, I think it's interesting that if you weren't familiar with city where you were doing your work ahead, um you might take a different approach, like, what would you have done if you weren't familiar with san francisco? So, wait, let me think about that. I think I'm not sure I would do anything much differently, I think what what I was able to do because I knew the places he was speaking about, I was able to engage him in conversation to have him give me more information sometimes or tow have him say, morris, what could cap so I could keep up? And so I could write down what he was saying, um, sometimes if I were to do this exercise and I'm not from this area and that often happens, you know, sometimes well, people won't be, you know, from there, it's it's a little bit more like, oh, you can still ask the same questions, but you're also maybe asking things like, oh, where you know the morago stairs like we're r do lot is this? Is this a landmark that a lot of people go to like? Is it something that's really popular? I've never heard of that before, you know, like, oh, how far away is it from turtle hill or golden gate park? Right? So it affords you a little more familiarity with content, and I think that's, um, when you're starting out it's helpful to have a sense of the content, you know, it'll actually be helpful, but I think one of the keys to developing skills is to get to a place where doesn't matter what the content is like, you feel confident you could do something with it, you know? Okay, great, alright, so that is our listen, you know what I wouldn't do actually is I would actually if we had a little more time and I won't do all of it, maybe it is I would actually create this because you start talking about landscapes and geographical places. I like this idea of these dotted lines because it makes it look almost like a nap, you know, so you're falling play as more icons around here you know, so then it that also helps with the flow of ideas. So really it's still a sequence in the list. So that is our list. Um, now we're going tio let's. See, let me just show you a few of these things that we didn't necessarily do all of. But usually they're in columns, ok? They don't have to be. They can also be meandering lists that follow a trail. Okay, um, they have consistent bullet points. In this case. The bullet points are really the numbers, right that go in front of each place. Okay. There's somehow color coordinated or coded in some ways that create a sense of structure and meaning. There's clear handwriting that you can read there's, a clear title. There's a date that I'm gonna add right now what I say and say, say what I want, okay, but, um, usually when you're doing this on your own, you would put some you would put in the date down the bottom up at the top. And that is your list.

Class Materials

Bonus Video with Purchase

Bonus Video: Titles with Flair HD Mp4
Materials List & Starter Kit

Ratings and Reviews

Sara
 

Wonderful overview of sketch noting with tons of opportunities to practice, learn, and refine skills! Appreciated the side benefits of recognizing sketchnoting involves active listening and the opportunity to practice that too. Thank you! 110% recommend this course.

Tran Phuong
 

Great fundamental skills for effective notetaking! I love Gisele and all her lessons! They are super easy to follow and understand. Would recommend it of course!

Lisa Houghton
 

I really enjoyed this class. I am a beginner sketchnoter and found it very helpful. Great pace and delivery by instructor. Every minute was worth it. Thank you!

Student Work

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