bikablo – A Quick Guide to Learning Essential Visual Vocabulary
- 21/06/2022
Sketchnoting or visual note-taking works a lot like writing. To begin, you will need paper and a pen – and then some of the basic visual vocabulary that we’ve developed here at bikablo. Of course, a little practice will come in handy, too – but this usually happens all on its own. Then, you’ll be taking your first steps toward becoming a visualizer. A few images from “UZMO – Thinking With Your Pen” will help you to get started.
by Martin Haussmann
SHARE ARTICLE
Visual Vocabulary
Have you ever drawn an arrow? Of course you have! I personally have always been fascinated by this graphic, which was used as far back as in the days when our ancient ancestors were making the first cave drawings. Even today, an arrow is a visual indication of how humans expand their spheres of activity: whenever we use an arrow, we are indicating a direction or illustrating a process or trend.
There are other visual vocabulary symbols that have also remained simple and easy to draw. Anyone can sketch a thin line, a circle, a triangle, or a square. With these simple shapes, you will already have a strong foundation to build your visual vocabulary.

Try a simple exercise! This sketch, for instance, documents a conversation between colleagues, each of whom has a different opinion. What do you think – is the conversation going smoothly?

It doesn’t look like it. Now, create a drawing of the same situation yourself and try to use arrows to indicate how such a conversation might play out.
Thought Sketching: Transforming Graphic Elements into Imagery and Stories
To help you work with colleagues by using sketchnoting to achieve a more in-depth analysis of technical problems, in the next step, you’ll learn how to use individual vocabulary elements to create entire sentences and, then, complete stories. For instance, a couple of more complex examples of thought sketches look like this:

If you’re looking for inspiration, you can, of course, use our bikablo icons card set, which we created for visual group work and creative methods. These will give you additional important tips for getting started in creating thought sketches of conversations.
MORE ARTICLES ON THIS TOPIC
You Might Also Be Interested In...

Using Visuals in Coaching
How our global trainer Jill Greenbaum got into drawing and which impact visualization has got on coaching situations.

Digital visualization and tablets – Part 1: Tips, tricks and new possibilities
Visualization doesn’t always require paper and pen – using a tablet to draw is also a lot of fun! This has become especially true ever since the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil together revolutionized digital illustration.

Using Visualization in Your Career – Something Everyone Can Do!
At a recent training session in Switzerland, I saw an excellent example of how to put visualization to use during a presentation: Thinking with the pen can be integrated into everyday work life in a wide variety of ways.