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Comics and Communication: A Practical Introduction

almostexact
April 20, 2015

Comics and Communication: A Practical Introduction

Slides from my workshop for the GDS team.

almostexact

April 20, 2015
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  1. Comics
    and
    communication
    Bonny Colville-Hyde
    @almostexact
    A practical introduction  

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  2. User research
    is
    Awesome.

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  4. Documenting &
    communicating
    Human
    experiences is
    hard

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  6. ‘Deliverables’
    Suck

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  8. If we don’t
    engage decision
    makers,
    we fail.

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  9. h#p://www.slideshare.net/birgitgcom   @birgitgcom  

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  10. Communication
    is
    hard

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  12. We can engage
    people with
    experiences.

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  13. People love
    Stories

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  14. People Love
    Comics

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  20. h#p://bza.co/joshln  

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  21. 17,897

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  22. 17,897
    Comic strips
    50
    years
    Peanuts,  Charles  Schulz  

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  23. the longest
    story ever told
    by one person

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  24. Why are
    comics so
    successful?

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  25. Verbal
    Non
    Verbal

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  26. Facial Expressions
    Eye contact
    Body language
    Gestures
    Speech

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  27. The magic of
    non-verbal
    communication

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  31. “…But
    comics are
    for kids –
    My Team
    wouldn’t
    get it…”

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  32. Charles  Schulz  

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  36. Comics in
    action

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  37. Share
    research
    (A.K.A: Bringing research
    to life)

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  38. Experienced  
    Novice  
    SkepDcal     TrusDng  
    BOB  
    SUE  

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  45. Test ideas with
    users

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  47. Kevin  CHENG,  Yahoo  

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  48. Develop
    personas

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  49. Meet ‘Denise’:

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  51. View Slide

  52. View Slide

  53. Share &
    explore ideas

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  54. Sco#  McCLOUD,  Google  Chrome  

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  55. Comic  created  for  conceptual  iOS  fitness  app  ‘Training  Buddy’  

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  56. Comic  created  for  conceptual  iOS  fitness  app  ‘Training  Buddy’  

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  57. What makes a
    comic?

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  58. Single panel:

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  59. Strip:

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  60. Pages:

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  61. Yay! Gutters!

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  63. View Slide

  64. ? !!!

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  65. View Slide

  66. storytelling

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  67. Buy this

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  68. View Slide

  69. “…But I can’t
    draw…”

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  70. Drawing is not
    scary

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  71. It just takes
    practice

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  72. xkcd.com/386  

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  73. Drawing faces

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  77. Lets play
    Emotion
    charades

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  78. TASK!
    -  Get into pairs
    -  Take it in turns to choose an emotion and
    act it out, without using words
    -  Act out at least two different emotions
    Happiness  
    Sadness  
    Fear  
    Depression  
    Confusion  
    Boredom  
    Anger  
    Excitement  
    Sorrow  
    Pride  
    Disgust  
    Relief  
    Shame  
    Frustration  
    Joy  

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  79. Drawing
    expressions

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  81. Sad   Neutral   Happy  
    TASK!
    -  Draw five circles/head shapes
    -  Add expressions on each face:
    Start with sad on the left, and end with
    happy on the right

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  82. Drawing
    figures

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  86. TASK!
    -  Draw two stick people standing next to
    each other, showing different emotions
    -  The emotions should be opposites
    Happiness   Sadness  
    Fear  
    Depression  
    Amusement   Boredom  
    Excitement  
    Sorrow  
    Pride  
    Relief  
    Shame  
    Joy  

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  87. View Slide

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  91. 1. Skeleton   2. Sausages   3. Detail   4. Inking  

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  92. 5. Tidy up   6. Vectors   7. Colour  

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  93. characters

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  95. Find a style
    that works
    for you
    (and practice)

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  96. A scenario
    •  We’re  working  for  an  ecommerce  photography  site  called  ‘The  
    Camera  Shop’.  
    •  They  sell  lots  of  different  cameras  and  photography  gear  to  a  
    variety  of  customers,  though  most  of  them  are  passionate  
    photographers.  
    •  They  want  to  know  how  they  can  appeal  to  customers  who  don’t  
    consider  themselves  photographers  and  who  spend  less  on  
    cameras  (because  there  are  a  lot  more  of  these  people  than  the  
    passionate  photographers).  
    •  Before  they  commission  a  large  piece  of  research,  they  want  to  see  
    what  insight  we  can  give  about  this  audience.  
    •  We  need  to  quickly  create  a  comic  that  shares  some  of  the  
    problems  and  potenDal  soluDons  The  Camera  Shop  could  provide  
    to  laymen  photographers.  

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  97. Finding an idea
    Via  the  Money  Saving  Expert  forum  

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  98. What’s going on
    here?
    •  ‘Bob’  wants  to  buy  a  new  compact  camera.  
    •  He  has  shopped  around,  but  has  been  
    overwhelmed  by  the  variety  and  choice  of  
    cameras.  
    •  He  doesn’t  want  a  lot  of  fancy  features,  but  he  
    does  care  about  the  image  quality.  
    •  He  has  up  to  £100  to  spend.  
    •  He  is  looking  for  help  to  make  a  decision.  

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  99. Making the story
    •  Bob  wants  to  buy  a  new  camera  because  his  current  one  
    has  broken.  He  wants  to  replace  his  camera  before  he  goes  
    on  holiday.  
    •  He  has  looked  on  several  websites,  but  has  been  
    overwhelmed  by  the  choice.  He  needs  help  to  refine  
    appropriate  cameras  into  a  more  manageable  shortlist,  or  
    even  to  find  the  best  one  for  him.  
    •  The  site  or  app  needs  to  allow  him  to  control  his  searching  
    and  browsing  so  he  can  manage  the  volume  of  results.  It  
    needs  to  give  him  choice  but  not  overwhelm  him.  
    •  He  needs  to  be  able  to  look  at  cameras  based  on  their  size  
    (he  wants  it  to  be  compact),  their  image  quality  (it  needs  to  
    take  nice  pictures)  and  its  price  (it  must  be  under  £100).  

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  100. View Slide

  101. Planning  the  comic  
    1.  Introduce  Bob  
    2.  Bob’s  camera  has  
    broken  
    3.  Bob  looks  for  cameras  
    online  
    4.  Bob  gets  
    overwhelmed  
    5.  Bob  finds  The  Camera  
    Shop  
    6.  Bob  finds  ‘The  
    Compact  Camera’  finder  
    7.  Bob  filters  compact  
    cameras  by  price  and  
    size  
    8.  Bob  finds  a  camera  he  
    is  interested  in  
    9.  Bob  browses  photos  
    taken  with  the  camera  
    from  Flickr  
    10.  Bob  feels  saPsfied  
    and  purchases  the  
    camera  

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  102. View Slide

  103. View Slide

  104. Ordon District NHS Trust
    Six hospitals:
    The Nightingale University Hospital,
    Redmill (has A&E, others don’t)

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  105. Meet Karen
    Karen lives with her two children (Sophie,
    4, and Jack, 2). During the week, her
    partner Mark works away from home.
    They recently moved to Redmill, and are
    still settling in.
    Her closest family members live a two
    hour drive away.

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  106. View Slide

  107. One Monday afternoon, Karen and the
    kids are in the garden, enjoying the sun.
    At 3pm Jack falls over and hits his head.
    A bump appears.
    Karen takes Jack and Sophie in doors.
    He wont stop crying. She becomes
    worried.
    Sophie starts to get scared and upset.

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  109. At 3:30pm Karen decides to take Jack to
    the hospital, she knows there’s one
    nearby, but she’s not sure where it is.
    Karen uses her PC laptop to search for
    the hospital.
    Once she’s found the right hospital, she
    puts its postcode into her phone which
    has a sat-nav app on it.

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  110. Other things to consider:
    There are two hospitals near her postcode,
    only one has an A&E department.
    There are road works near the hospital.
    The hospital car park is pay and display.
    There are limited parent and child parking
    spaces at the North entrance.
    There is a shop and café at the hospital
    which close at 5pm. Sophie and Jack usually
    eat at 5:30pm.

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  111. How do we
    turn this into
    a comic?

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  112. 1   2   3  
    4   5   6  
    1:  Plan  the  story   2:  Design  the  characters   3:  PracPce  the  character’s  
    emoPons  
    4:  Draw  the  comic   5:  Get  feedback   6:  Refine  the  comic  

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  113. What have you
    got?

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  114. Tools
    Brush  textures  for  Photoshop  created  by  Alex  Dukal:  h#p://circografico.com.ar/shop/  

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  115. Comic Life

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  116. Key points to
    remember

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  117. engage decision
    makers

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  118. Don’t obsess
    about process

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  119. Speak to users
    as often as
    possible

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  120. Plan!

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  121. Make it easy for
    yourself

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  122. Wait for ink to
    dry before
    using an eraser

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  123. Have fun

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  124. Thank you!
    @almostexact

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