Explaining the world one sketch at a time

Sketchplanations makes complex ideas simple with clear, insightful sketches. Explore topics from science, creativity, psychology, and beyond explained in pictures.

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Metaphors for ideas

Ideas are: Locations Objects Food There are others too. But these are big ones. Curious? Read Metaphors We Live By was a frame-changing easy read for me. PS Accidentally, mixed my metaphors in the final sketch. The Mind Is A Machine metaphor is so pervasive it’s hard to ‘sketch’ across thinking without it.…

9 Feb 2014

Understanding gifs, bitmaps and jpegs

Knowing a little of the fundamentals really helps you appreciate why people always create such giant PowerPoint files all the time by mistake (hint: the standard screen capture pastes as a bitmap) and why images go grainy on the Internet or load really slow.…

8 Feb 2014

Wealth inequality in America

From the video Wealth Inequality in America…

7 Feb 2014

Maximise data-ink

Principles from Edward Tufte. Remove chart junk. Erase redundant and non-data-ink. Above all else show the data. Of course the present infographic trend laughs in the face of these principles in the interests of trying to encourage people to actually look at the data in the first place. But, assuming you actually want people to seriously infer some meaning from the data, these are not bad principles to follow when constructing your data graphics. Some basic Excel templates could do with a clean up for example.…Principles from Edward Tufte. Remove chart junk. Erase redundant and non-data-ink. Above all else show the data. Of course the present infographic trend laughs in the face of these principles in the interests of trying to encourage people to actually look at the data in the first place. But, assuming you actually want people to seriously infer some meaning from the data, these are not bad principles to follow when constructing your data graphics. Some basic Excel templates could do with a clean up for example.

6 Feb 2014

Examples of 3 mindmaps at an event, one for questions to ask, one for people to remember or say hello to, and one for ideas that come to mind

Start three mindmaps at conferences and workshops

When you're next at a conference try starting 3 mindmaps: one for Questions, one for People and one for Ideas. I have found this technique helps me with both getting the most out of the event at the event, and getting the most out of the event after the event. Starting a to-do list on the side doesn’t hurt either.…

5 Feb 2014

Understanding reliability and validity

Tricky topics - validity trickier than reliability. At it’s core I believe reliability is about getting the same results given the same conditions and validity is about measuring what you intend to measure. Harder than it sounds.…

5 Feb 2014

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