In 2009 I helped Chad Sellers of Useful Fruit Software to rebrand his independent software company.

I had a great time developing his new identity and now Chad needed help redesigning his flagship note-taking app, Pear Note. The timing was perfect, so Chad hired me on to begin the process of redesign.

Pear Note 1.0

Goals and Plans

I spent time using and reviewing Pear Note myself, so I could suggest ideas for areas I saw could be improved, refined and updated.

Our goals for 2.0:

• Maintain the solid concepts and structure of Pear Note 1 — recording audio and video while typing and syncing with slide decks was a key feature neither Chad or I wanted to lose in a redesign.

• Updated UI controls & icons — the original version featured a collection of controls Chad was able to put together to make the app work, but there was huge potential for a sleeker design without losing any functionality.

• Addition of new UI controls and features — speed control, a jump back 30 seconds feature and document sharing to the web, so Mac users could share their Pear Note files with anyone with a web browser.

• Improvement of the search feature — in version 1 search was an icon that activated a heads-up style dark gray menu. We both wanted to add a search field in the main window with lightning fast and readable results.

• Better structure and status areas — I wanted to add an iTunes-styled info/control bar for playback, unified audio and video controls and an info status bar at the bottom of the main window with helpful, contextual information.

UI Pencil Sketch Concepts

I began by sketching out a rough idea of the main window of Pear Note in pencil, with updated controls, an iTunes style playback info/control bar, unification of the right column and the info bar along the bottom of the window:

The original time control bar and handle control looked too much like a standard volume slider, so I put emphasis on this area first.

Pear Note creates blended notes that synchronize text, audio, video and slides, so I wanted a control that could allow a user to see where they were in the note file, then slide back and forth to easily location a certain section of notes.

Because the playback was very similar to music or podcast playback, I was inspired by Ui concepts being used in iTunes to present status and a grab-able control bar.

I really liked that the iTunes status bar made it clear what part of a track had been played and what was left — another useful feature for a synced notes document.

Simplifications

I felt recording applied to both of these functions and proposed the idea of making the controls identical by offering recording controls in both Audio and Video areas, completely eliminating the separate Recording section in the application.

Helpful Features

I suggested the date notes were captured, character count and recorded time might be handy to have for a heavy note-taker and would help visually finish off the main window in a way the plain window of Pear Note 1 hadn't.

Sketching Controls, Take 2

After some research, I wanted to create more standard style playback controls with a bit of shine and even explored the idea of a rounded record button to help set it off from the other controls.

Chad wasn't a fan of the rounded button, so we moved away from that direction, though he really liked the idea of a unified record and playback control.

As for the playback time status controls, we wanted to try an idea that used the full width of the main window as squeezing this control into a single top row of controls tended to make it small, a potential issue on minimized windows.

I sketched out the idea of moving this control just below the record and playback controls, and making it wide and short, with iTunes influences. Small window sizes would limit space on this design, but to a lesser degree than had we tried to jam it into a single bar along the top of the window.

At this point both Chad and I were satisfied with the progress made in sketches, so I moved to Fireworks to create mockup screens.

Mockup Screens

I started with a very simple v1 mockup and dark controls, a stylized playback time control and concepts for the audio recording meter:

In the next revision I explored controls that were dark, that had shine and some with no shine at all, referencing various controls in Apple's iDVD application.

I found it helpful to grab screenshots of elements for reference and drop them right into the mockup for comparison:

You can see that these early mockups don't even feature the right column or footer ideas built yet — those came a bit later.

In this next version you'll see I've settled on a subtle shine for the record and playback controls have started exploring icons and the search bar appearances, filled out the right column and the footer area:

You'll also notice the idea of line numbers I proposed in these mockups. While Chad liked the idea, it wasn't critical to the app and was removed from scope to allow effort to be placed on more critical features.

As I progressed, more details were refined and finalized, until reaching the last mockup before extracting icons and elements as PNG graphics for Chad to use in the actual application. Note the subtle changes in this last screen, including details like the small icons in the status bar at the base of the main window:

Production Art

In some cases it made more sense to stick with Fireworks and generate PNGs. Mostly these were cases where Opacity or my skills with the tool weren't flexible/good enough to produce elements in the way I wanted them to appear, or where it was simply quicker to export from Fireworks than redo graphics in Opacity.

Final Development

Final record and playback controls:

Right sidebar:

Bottom info status bar:

You may notice the Share icon in the final UI, which we worked on later in the project. This feature allows a Pear Note user to share their synced text/audio/video/slides as an HTML page with playback for anyone with a browser — more on that next.

Designing the Sharing Feature and Web Player

First, we focused on the player, going through revisions until we had a design that worked and felt like an extension of the desktop app while still being a web player:

Then we worked on a dialog box to show users how to setup sharing that could also take advantage of Dropbox, a web-based storage service:

Project Satisfaction

It's funny, because as I've progressed through this experience I've moved from feeling like a designer hired to produce design ideas and elements to more of a partner in creating a revamped app — I really love that feeling.

It felt great being able to recommend friends Brian Artka to solve the challenge of a web-based player with many moving parts in HTML5 and Tyler Dunn to redesign the Useful Fruit website to coincide with the release of Pear Note 2.0.

Buy Pear Note 2.0

I may be biased about Pear Note's UI design as the designer, but I was a user and fan long before I'd considered doing the UI redesign. It's simply a great application.

For $40 it's really a steal of an app that you'll quickly find indispensable too. If you have a family, check out the Family License for $55 and for small companies, contact Chad directly for great business licensing deals customized to your needs.

Thanks!

I'm happy Chad decided to work with me on the Pear Note 2.0 redesign project.

Thanks Chad!

It's SXSW Interactive 2011 Panel Picker time!

I've proposed a session for Visual Note-Taking 201, featuring the same crew of good friends from Visual Note-Taking 101 — Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and Austin Kleon, to talk about more advanced techniques.

Vote for our panel today!

Here are more details:

Visual Note-Taking 201

In Visual Note-Taking 201, the same team of visual note-takers will share their advanced visual note-taking techniques. They will share ideas on capturing complex and abstract ideas on paper, in clear understandable ways.

Once again, the audience can draw along, learning new techniques on the spot. In this interactive session you will learn how to create infographic style visual notes, embedding rich meaning into simple and understandable packages of information.

Panelists will share their approaches to listening and information processing when capturing live notes, suggest their preferred tools of the trade and talk about effective ways to share visual notes once they've been captured.

This panel will also feature an extended Q&A time to answer questions from the audience on best practices for visual note-taking and challenges audience members may have faced in their own visual note-taking experiences.

Questions Answered

• How can I capture complex ideas simply and effectively?
• How are visual notes like infographics?
• How can I learn to 'cache' and manage information when doing live visual notes?
• What are some recommended supplies I can use? (e.g. pens, pencils, markers, paper, books, etc.)
• What are ways I can share my visual notes? (e.g. Flickr, Twitter, etc.)

References

Please go vote for Visual Note-Taking 201!
(login/signup at sxsw.com required)

I brought a Moleskine sketchbook along with a 0.7mm gel pen (which is always in my pocket) so I could try capturing a dinner as a sketchnote. I've already captured events, travel and my iPhone unboxing — why not my first ever dinner at Chez Panisse?

Enjoyment of the food came first, of course. I took photos of each dish with my iPhone for later reference. No sense letting wonderful food like this grow cold while sketching it (I was of course very careful not to spill my food on my Moleskine).

Later I learned that people seated at the next table were interested in my sketches, though they never came over to get a closer look. The waiter was very interested and suggested that I email him my work (which I'm about to do after posting this article).

Having this little sketchnote to refer to after the fact has provided me with a time capsule of rich memories. I can still taste the tartness of the boysenberries of the desert when I look at this sketchnote. Mmmm, good!

My article about issues the iPhone app Fishies has brought up some good discussion about in-app purchases and what turns out to be an opaque iTunes system that caches usernames and passwords when users may not realize it.

I've heard background info on the way iTunes deals with in-app purchases from other iOS developers and a personal note from Eric, a founder at PlayMesh and wanted to set the record straight about what happened.

First, I want to apologize to PlayMesh.

As a parent, I was angered yesterday at what seemed like an unauthorized purchase of virtual currency in their app, Fishies. This has turned out NOT to be the case. PlayMesh is no different than any other iOS app developer using in-app purchases.

Rather, this was all a result of iTunes storing my username and password from a prior purchase for in-app purchases in Fishies.

Now one might argue that $149.99 in virtual currency or objects of any kind are just nuts. I would agree with you, but that's is a separate subject from how items like this could be purchased as in-app add-ons.

This is an issue with any iOS app that uses an in-app purchasing model, because iTunes stores your username and password, which is subsequently available for in-app purchases, even if you don't know it.

A Reply from PlayMesh

Eric writes:

We built Fishies with the intention of making it a free to play game and we would sell a few virtual goods to help sustain it's own costs. We happily adopted Apple's in-app purchase system because we believed it to be the most friction-free experience for our users who do choose to support us financially by buying some virtual goods.

That being said we have indeed noticed that there are several users whose experience has mimicked yours. We have pinned it down to the fact that iTunes usually caches your iTunes account login for some amount of time after you are been prompted for it. So usually what will happen, is that a parent with download Fishies and give it to their kid to play with it right after they download.

Afterward, their kid will go get a few in-app purchases (usually including the $149 option) and never get prompted for a password. Unfortunately, this part of the system is almost entirely controlled by Apple, we're simply plugging into their API.

That's precisely my experience from yesterday and it appears to be a flaw/feature in the iTunes system. After helpful discussion and feedback from developers @NeoNacho @manton @NattyLux and @@felttipsoft that iTunes was storing my username and password for 15 minutes after my initial app purchase, which allowed purchases in Fishies without any login prompts.

It's not at all fair to iOS developers, as they are simply using the system Apple provides. When users have purchases made unknowingly, they blame the developers without realizing it's really the iTunes system of caching credentials that's at fault here.

Manton Reece on iTunes password caching

What must have happened to Mike is that he bought something, entered his password, and then handed the iPad over to his son. His son played the fish game and clicked a bunch of random stuff (likely got the Buy prompt), but because the whole concept of virtual currency is kind of confusing, and because it didn't ask for a password, the app happily let him make all the purchases.

I doubt the developer of this app did anything wrong. A reasonable argument could be made that iTunes should either not cache passwords at all, or keep a separate cache for app downloads vs. in-app purchases, or maybe always prompt for a password on in-app purchases. My kids and other kids I know have also used this backdoor trick to sneak a couple app downloads, but usually it's a few bucks, not $190. Consumable virtual items (that you can keep buying over and over) make this problem much worse.

Manton is right — though the Fishies app was downloaded free several weeks ago, which made it even harder to see the connection between buying a racing game at 10:30 AM and getting multiple large in-app purchases from Fishies at 10:45.

This is the real issue — users don't realize their credentials, with full purchasing power are floating around in iOS, available to apps for in-app purchasing.

In my view, any in-app purchase should at least require an initial re-entry of username and password to initiate a purchase in the app.

Cached credentials from prior purchases ought not be available within app, unless I specifically opt-into that feature by manually changing preferences.

Buried iOS Restrictions Prefs

When activated, in-app purchases can be turned off, but this preference is not made very apparent for the average user and is very well buried in the Settings area.

Why not set in-app purchase preferences to OFF and let the user opt-in when purchasing in-app goods?

Still, even if this preference were activated, requiring apps to get a username/password entered for the initial in-app purchase — rather than using cached credentials — would have stopped our inadvertent purchases.

So it comes to this: iTunes caches my credentials once entered for frictionless convenience, but it's not apparent to me as a user that this is the case until I have a $190 bill I didn't want. This is a problem that Apple needs to deal with.

So, with all that said, you can now read my story below, with updates and changes to the text in light of what I now know now about iTunes, credentials, in-app purchases and PlayMesh:

Friday, June 9, 2010 10:00 PM

I'm angry.

I'm burning with a white hot passion to tell the story of iTunes enabling unintended charges of $190 worth of virtual currency in the iPhone app, Fishies from PlayMesh.

This is a cautionary tale about the dangers of iPad/iPhone apps and in-app purchasing.

This will be a long post, so hang on.

Today, iTunes enabled inadvertent in-app currency purchases via my 7 year old son, while he played the PlayMesh Fishies app on our iPad.

Read that again — from my 7 year old son.

It Started with a Free App

When Nathan called me over, asking if he could buy some pearls for his new fish tank to get more items, I hesitated.

They were asking for our iTunes username and password. No way! I didn't want any part of their virtual pearls currency, thank you very much!

I asked Nathan if he could just sell some items to get other items, that's when he told me the app crashed every time he tried to do that. I tried to sell something, sure enough — crashes every time!

I looked at the iTunes reviews for Fishies and saw posts from users claiming to have bought things in-app and not getting them as promised.

I decided not to purchase any in-app items and thought there was nothing more to do.

Shocked by a $153.97 Purchase of Virtual Pearls

"Hey dad! There are all sorts of pearls and items in Fishies today, isn't that cool? I wonder where they came from?"

I glanced over and saw the iPad screen and mentioned that the developers must have made an app upgrade to get the app working again.

Then I received an email from iTunes, opened it up and...

WHAT? A $153.97 BILL FOR FISHIES PEARLS?!!

I immediately told Nathan to shut the app down and ask him if he had clicked any windows to purchase anything: he said no.

I wouldn't have mattered if he had though, as in-app purchases OUGHT to require a username and password — and Nathan doesn't know it either.

What the heck was going on?

I immediately went to iTunes and saw the damage - multiple chests of virtual pearls for the Fishies app, escalating in value: $0.99... $1.99... $149.99!

$153.97 in inadvertent purchases from PlayMesh Fishies!

Time to Complain

I sent PlayMesh support an angry email, demanding a refund for these unauthorized purchases.

Then I called PayPal and they were very helpful, but as it turns out, all they can do is dispute all transactions from iTunes — they can't do it for past purchases on my PayPal debit and they can't dispute specific purchases from iTunes.

ARRRGGGGGG!!

So I have another look at my iTunes account and guess what? The day we downloaded Fishies and Nathan played with it (that day he wanted to buy things in the app?) they charged us $37 for virtual pearls.

Greaaat. $190 for in-app purchases for Fishies I didn't even know were made.

I thought so.

And I'm not alone as it turns out:

The Sun: Alec McSalley charged £485 to play iPhone game

A FURIOUS dad told last night how £485 mysteriously vanished from his bank account after playing a simple game on his iPhone.

My iTunes Account Was Hacked for $375—By My Own Kids by Kevin Tofel on BusinessWeek:

As this past weekend included the Fourth of July holiday, I expected to see plenty of red, white, and blue. Unfortunately, all I experienced was red when, on Saturday, I noticed three unfamiliar iTunes transactions totaling more than $375.

Lock down your restrictions in the Settings of your iOS device and be aware that once your username and password are entered into the iTunes store for purchases, it hangs in cache for 15 minutes.

I've learned the hard way, hopefully you won't have to.

Update: Friday July 9th 12:40 AM

I've also learned through tweets and emails tonight, that Paul Thurrott's kids were also hit by a similar issue for in-app purchases for a whopping $880! He was able to call Apple and have the charges refunded, so Saturday I'm going to call Apple support for the iPad we had issues on to see what I can do.

Hear Paul and Leo LaPorte discuss the story on Windows Weekly 162 at about 1:02:15 into the podcast (MP3) Thanks Mike, Paolo and Michael! for the tips!

Update: Saturday July 10th 10:00 AM

The Apple support agent was as surprised as I was about the situation. He thought it was odd that in-app purchases happened without an iTunes username and password.

Apple refunded the largest $153.97 purchase.

They would only refund one day's purchases in Fishies.

I asked the Apple rep if iTunes one-click caching works with in-app purchases. He said iTunes requires username/password entry for every in-app purchase.

As it turns out, iTunes and the caching of my username and password were indeed to blame for these inadvertent in-app purchases.

What about restrictions preferences on the iPad itself?

on Twitter asked if I had set the Settings > General > Restrictions in the iPad to turn off in-app purchases. I hadn't realized this needed attention and hadn't disabled in-app purchases.

Still, even with the restrictions left at default (on) for in-app purchases, it doesn't explain how Fishies could have enacted in-app purchases without entry of my username and password.

I replied:

@NeoNacho iPad restrictions weren't set - but @SnappyTouch says each in-app purchase requires a username & pw which my son doesn't know.

NeoNacho says:

@rohdesign The password is definitely cached for a while. If you typed it in for getting the app and didn't lock in between, that's why.

My reply:

@NeoNacho Interesting explanation. I would have thought there's a barrier to cached un/pw when moving inside of an app. That's scary if so.

And it's exactly what happened. My username and password were stored in iTunes and used by Nathan, without me realizing it, to inadvertently buy pearls inside the app Fishies.

This seems to me a very dangerous approach by Apple.

Related Links

I'm currently checking through the links below, so if you find a bad link or have one to suggest, please send me an email with "TDF" in the subject line.

Thanks!

Mike

Streaming Audio & Video

Tour Websites

Tour Bloggers

Twitter

Podcasts

Books

Web & Mobile Apps

Widgets

Photos

Miscellaneous

SUGGESTIONS?

Enjoy!

• I find the iPad most useful and pleasant as a reading device using Instapaper for saved articles, NewsRack and Reeder for RSS and Kindle Reader for books. I still read RSS feeds with my iPhone but there's something pleasing about the larger screen that makes reading a joy on the iPad.

• Battery life is a killer feature. It's unusual to see the battery go low, though vie learned that the 10 watt charger is key — iPhone chargers simply don't have the oomph to charge the iPad, even though they will at least maintain the current charge level.

• Browsing is also very well suited to the iPad. This Friday I had to do some sketching for a logo project and decided to take only my iPad, sketchbook and pencils to the cafe. It was perfect device to reference my Basecamp projects, search for reference images in Google and playing music in iTunes and Pandora.

• I've enjoyed the Netflix and ABC Player apps — watching movies on an iPad is nicely intimate and not cumbersome as it always feels with my MacBook.

• Drawing works well on the iPad with a variety of useful drawing apps. I especially enjoy Adobe Ideas, Sketchbook Pro and Penultimate. The biggest issues are stylus options. I have the Pogo Sketch stylus and it works, but feels like drawing with a mushy pea on a stick. I've heard good things about the Dagi stylus but haven't bought one yet. I hope more, better styli appear over time that feel like actual pens and pencils.

• it's heavy and that's a plus and minus. On the downside it can be awkward to hold up in bed for extended periods, but that weight also gives me the sense that an iPad is a substantive device. It certainly feels well made.

• Using the USB adapter from the photo connection kit works well with my wired USB Apple keyboard, though the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard is one item I think will make the iPad a more useful as a writing device for me.

Those are just a few thoughts — I'll post more here as I think of them.

Mike

Pecha Kucha is a presentation approach using 20 slides x 20 seconds per slide. The slides switch automatically, every 20 seconds until your 6:40 time is up.

Here's the video of my performance:

You can see that I was a little nervous at the start, but settled into a groove and focused on telling my story. As I got into the flow of the story, it felt great to see people in the crowd enjoying the experience. What a rush!

Check out my Pecha Kucha slide deck on Slideshare.

Public Speaking is OUT of My Comfort Zone

I think doing Pecha Kucha with the added challenge of tight timing has really moved me to a new level and I'm excited about speaking more and improving as a result.

Pecha Kucha Advice

1. Choose a topic you know really well. — I felt completely knowledgeable about sketchnotes having discovered them 3 years ago. I've been practicing the sketchnotes as a discipline and a approach for a while now, which gave me confidence.

2. Invest time in preparation — I was most pleased in having invested a good amount of time in establishing a flow on a whiteboard and preparing a unified set of slides from that hard work. This also made me more confident.

3. Ideas and memorization — I decided to deliver my talk without any notes — facing the audience and talking directly to them without distraction. I know when I read a speech I stiffen up and don't sound natural and I didn't want that.

On advice of James Carlson my friend and Pecha Kucha presenter , I wrote out my talk within 20 cells of a spreadsheet, to help me see where it was generally long and short. Eventually those wordy texts were boiled down to 20 ideas I could memorize.

I didn't memorize the words related to the ideas, instead I memorized the ideas themselves in proper order (1-20) which allowed for spur of the moment improvisation within the structure.

This turned the talk into a storytelling performance rather than reading of cards or looking at the slides for cues. My slides instead supported the story I told, not the other way around.

4. Practice, A LOT! — I invested time in practicing my talk over and over again, probably 30+ times. I did the talk on my own, with my wife, work colleagues and friends until the story was in my head and flowed well. Repeated practice helped me calm down once I started talking.

5. Practice with Audiences — I think it's critical that you perform the talk multiple times, with your slides in front of real people. Performing the talk in private had some value, but as I performed the talk in front of others I received great feedback and reduced the stress I had speaking for others, bit by bit.

6. Nail the Timing — I found that by performing the talk with my slides and also with Pesky, an iPhone timer that buzzed every 20 seconds, I was able to get the words to the right length and feel how they worked with my slides.

I ditched the iPhone app after James Carlson suggested I become aware of my slides as they reflect off of hard surfaces and the crowd, so I could stay focused on the audience. That was a huge help for me in sensing the slides changing behind me.

7. Find Friends in the Audience — I always like to find friends in audiences if I can, as they help me connect with those I'm speaking to and provide the confidence that there are people out there supporting me.

I was blessed to have so many friends at Tuesday's Pecha Kucha, supporting and cheering me on as I shared my story. Thanks everyone!

Go Pecha Kucha!

I feel much more confident after presenting a talk at a Pecha Kucha night, and I hope lessons I've learned and shared will help others prepare for a talk of their own.

Thanks Jon and Dylan at 800-CEO-READ for the opportunity!

Related Links
YouTube: Video of my talk
Slideshare: Pecha Kucha slide deck.
Dwellephant: PECHA KUCHA RECAP • 5.11.2010

Thanks Daria!

After a bit of thinking, I've decided to tell the story of sketchnotes. I've been telling the story in various ways, but in this case I'll be sharing the lessons I've learned since developing my sketchnote technique in April 2007:

If you're wondering, PechaKucha is a presentation approach using 20 slides x 20 seconds per slide. The slides switch automatically, every 20 seconds until your 6:40 time is up. Talk about pressure to nail the timing.

My slides are ready and I'm practicing my talk, honing the words and tightening the delivery. It's hard work, but I'm feeling good about delivering a good performance and having fun at the same time.

Performing a PechaKucha presentation is a bit out of my comfort zone — yet that's what makes it so exciting and intriguing. I've been pushing myself to develop the skill of public speaking and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to take the next step.

I can't wait to share my PechaKucha and would love you to attend:

PechaKucha Night #7
Tuesday, May 11th, 8PM
Sugar Maple
441 E. Lincoln Avenue, Milwaukee
Cover charge: $10 per person

This ought to be fun! :-)

REWORK has also become a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller in a little over 2 weeks after release.

It's very exciting to see the book really taking off, especially having been part of the team that made REWORK happen.

Related Links
'Long Lists Don't Get Done' - ABC News
Authors of 'Rework' Answer E-mails - ABC News
Order REWORK at Amazon

Today, Illustrating REWORK (Part 2 of 2) appeared on Signal vs. Noise, to complete the story. In part 2 of the guest article, I reveal my process for translating pencil sketch concepts described in part 1, into final artwork ready for print production.

Here's an excerpt from part 2:

Inking
Using batches of approved pencil sketches, I began inking illustrations for the book. Batching was important for inking the illustrations, as I could get into a groove and knock out multiple pieces at a time. It also provided a consistency of style, important with such a large group of closely related illustrations.

When I live-sketchnote an event, I listen to a speaker and capture ideas in real-time, using only a gel pen and a Moleskine pocket sketchbook. On the REWORK project I had the luxury and flexibility of taking a more methodical approach to the final illustrations for the book.

Chances were high that I’d see late, last-minute changes in the publishing process and I wanted the ability to make those changes quickly. Rather than inking each illustration as a complete unit, I inked multiple elements separately which were scanned and stitched together in a layered Photoshop document.

First, I created a variety of separate elements on a single spread for multiple illustrations, then used the elements which worked best after scanning the entire page into Photoshop. –Photo by Brian Artka.

Here’s a photo of the final illustration, printed in REWORK. This photo shows how various elements were scanned and stitched together in Photoshop to create a single, unified illustration. –Photo by Brian Artka.

Read: Illustrating REWORK (Part 1 of 2) and Illustrating REWORK (Part 2 of 2)

A big thank you to Brian Artka for shooting my sketchbooks for both of the articles, and Gabe Wollenburg for proofreading and editing tips on the pieces.

Listen to the Podcast

Review 5 Chapters

Buy REWORK!

Order REWORK at Amazon

Another difference this year: shooting photos of sketchnotes immediately after completion with my iPhone camera on Twitpic. I saw how popular this approach was during NaNoDrawMo and it was popular during SXSW. I enjoyed immediate responses from friends on Twitter, especially those who couldn't make it to Austin.

Here is the full set — you can see higher resolution versions on Flickr.

Thanks to everyone who encouraged me last week in my sketchnoting!

Beacon Lounge Sketchnote Gallery

Photo by Samantha Warren

Visual Thinking 101 Panel

Photo by Michelle Milla

Jason Fried of 37signals invited me to write the post Illustrating REWORK about the process of illustrating their new business book, REWORK.

I went into detail about how we started the book illustration process, worked with Crown Publishing, generated illustration concepts and prepared pencil sketches for review, approval and final production.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Pencils vs. Inking Initially I’d planned on inking each illustration in a Moleskine sketchbook, making the reviewable artwork as close to final artwork as possible. But after thinking about what would best suit the review and feedback process, I decided it would be smart to review uninked pencil sketches instead.

Pencil concept sketch for “Everyone on the Front Lines”. –Photo by Brian Artka

This proved to be a time-saving decision. Had I inked pieces as near-final art, I would have lost time re-inking multiple illustrations to accommodate changes.

Because I invested up-front time in solving the illustrations as pencils, I only had to ink once before moving to Photoshop for final artwork.

Writing Part 1 of 2 was great fun to do, because I've learned over the years here that people are fascinated by the design process. You can also read Illustrating REWORK (Part 2 of 2) for the full story.

Many thanks to Brian Artka for shooting my sketchbooks for the articles, and to Gabe Wollenburg for proofreading and editing tips on the pieces.

Listen to the Podcast

Review 5 Chapters

Buy REWORK!

Order REWORK at Amazon

I began this blog as a way to capture my thoughts on design, travel, technology, and more after selling my e-zine, the Palm Tipsheet in 2003.

Along with my articles here, you can also follow me on Twitter as @rohdesign for daily commentary.

Thanks for staying with me as readers for all these years, I appreciate your support!