The value of hand drawn images in Business Analysis

hand drawn images in business analysis

How hand drawn images are so useful

In an earlier post (The Power of Comic Books!!) I talked about an interview with a Keegan Lannon, a Ph.D. student studying the value of comic books. This was accompanied with a video of the interview.

In the video Keegan states

the more abstract a comic is, the more the person can relate to it.

Abstract images

Then I stumbled across an interesting piece that validates this.

In Rough and Hand-drawn: Alive and Inviting Tom Benthin talks about how, when compared to computer created images,

more abstract drawings of people allow us not just to imagine that a drawing is real, but that we are in it.

value of hand drawn images

 

How this can be useful for Business Analysis

In Business Analysis you are often trying to describe something to your stakeholders. When you are working with stakeholders at the beginning of the process

When you are working with stakeholders at the beginning of the process, you are trying to find out what “the real problem” is. You’ll often draw a stickman to represent “the user”, or similar. Think of flow diagrams.

After you have worked through all your findings, you present your work to the client or stakeholders. And often you’ll use a diagram that represents your understanding. Examples of this include Use Cases, Activity diagrams, etc.

 

An example of a Use Case Model

 

In each case, the actor is represented by a “hand drawn” image, or stick figure.

Taking into account, what Lannon stated above, you now realise that there is more to a stick figure…

  • How Digital Comics Change The Way Comic Books Are Drawn – And Imagined (gizmodo.com.au)
  • 26 Ways to Use Comics in the Classroom and 5 Free Tools for Creating Comics (freetech4teachers.com)