In November 2025, I had the opportunity to hold a sketchnote workshop for international PhD students at the University of Linz. In a very ambitious two-hour sketchnoting crash course, I introduced the participants to the basics of sketchnoting, after which they had an hour to draw an aspect of their PhD project and try out what they had learned for themselves. Afterwards, they were able to present their sketchnotes and receive feedback.
I was very impressed by how well the participants’ sketch notes turned out and how well they spontaneously applied basic design features. The use of colors, the inclusion of different models, and the use of emotions made the research projects very accessible, even for me, who knew nothing about them. Some also used the time to sketch out their personal path within the research project and the steps leading up to its completion, rather than the research work itself.
In preparing for the workshop, I decided to draw all the materials myself and to use mainly my own sketch notes for the examples in the presentation. So everything was really homemade and very “me.” 🌞 I will continue to do this in the future because I feel much more confident with my own drawings, and sketching the presentation also helped me a lot to organize my thoughts and put them into shape.
