A lot of the client illustration work I’ve done this year has been for Lenny’s newsletter, which is “a weekly advice column about product, growth, working with humans, and anything else that stresses you out at the office” with over 65,000 subscribers by Lenny Rachitsky. It’s been a lot of fun to work on.

Getting to draw as part of my research work always feels like a treat. Using visuals to tell a story, gather insights and share information is my happy place.

But it’s easy to forget to bring illustration into my research practice when the common standard is to focus facilitation and documentation around written work. So, I’ve put together a non-exhaustive list of ways that research can be visual.

I’ve enjoyed seeing all of the 2009/2019 side by sides people have been posting on Twitter as a way to welcome in the new year, and the new decade. But, I’m pretty camera shy. So instead, I wanted to try to flex by visual storytelling muscles and try to do my own illustrated versions of a side by side and some of the things I’ve learned in the in between.

I want to try to articulate that love of making and create something of a manifesto for making to try and get more people relearning how to use their hands with me.

Here’s a little story about a dog, inspired by Blair Braverman’s storytimes that are sometimes the distractions that get me through the day. Plus who doesn’t love a pup and a pep talk?

Barbara Hepworth is one of my favourite artists of all time. I’ve visited her sculptures up and down the country and there’s always something so present and grounding about them, that they make me feel better no matter how discombobulated I might feel.

I’ve always been a bit suspicious of chatbots and conversational interfaces. There’s something about them I find unsettling, particularly those that learn as they are exposed to more conversation. So when I saw UAL’s Creative Computing Institute was offering an online course inspired by their Feminist Chatbot work through Future Learn, I leapt on the chance to learn more.

For the last year and a little bit I’ve been a member of ENGINE UK’s shadow board. ENGINE is a full stack agency which covers creative, communications, media and transformation, essentially it’s like a creative marketing and comms powerhouse that works hand in hand with data and consultancy know how. The shadow board was an opportunity for 9 of us from across the business to come together and shape the future of where we work, support our executive team and ultimately see what it means to be a leader in a different context.

Here’s a little story about a Christmas tree. 

I’ve tried to draw some of the mindset shifts I want to make as a new way of tackling them and hopefully helping you tackle them too. I loved trying to come up with ways to make the intangible clear and easy to see on the page.

This story is all about Dolly as a businesswoman. It’s about using your art to tell your story and being proud of your truth, about knowing your value and saying no when you have to, and it’s about recognising the talents of other women along the way.

Here are three drawing exercises I love and I thought would be a fun lunch time break. They’re all exercises you can do on your own or together with others. You can use them to warm up for your day, to get you feeling good before tackling a creative challenge, as a silly ice breaker before a workshop, or whenever and however you want. 

These are a few of the exercises that are in my observational work out.

As London, very slowly, reopens I wanted to give a virtual tour of one of my favourite areas to share a glimpse with those who can’t visit and a few fun facts to make a visit more fun for those who can.

Doing research for and designing services that are inclusive is a big part of my work, so it’s something I think about a whole lot. But I know it’s not at the top of everyone’s mind. That’s why, along with some of my brilliant colleagues, I run inclusive design workshops for anyone involved in services that have some or all of their interactions online. We’ve run these workshops with designers, researchers, coders, and people working in communications internally and externally with participants across government and financial sectors so far.

Through those workshops we’ve busted a lot of myths about inclusive design and I wanted to share some of those with you here.