LEARNING TO MAKE SENSE: SKETCHNOTING IN UNDERGRADUATE DESIGN EDUCATION

This paper outlines a pedagogical approach based on "sketchnoting" to help design students gather, synthesise, and make sense of information. The method combines theory on how people learn with theory on how designers typically think to develop a form of studying, research, and sensemaking that is useful for both the course and lifelong learning. Based on dual coding theory, the method suggests creating two representations (visual and verbal) of complex information to facilitate sensemaking. A visual note-taking system, adapted to designers' thinking, provides a helpful bridge between disciplines with different epistemological foundations but is not without challenges. Objective evaluation of a highly personal sensemaking method is problematic, and students with a background in visual arts may be better prepared to use it. The paper will discuss these issues and relate them to the future challenges that design education must face.