What do you think?
Rate this book
See What I Mean: How to Use Comics to Communicate Ideas
Comics are a unique way to communicate, using both image and text to effectively demonstrate time, function, and emotion. Just as vividly as they convey the feats of superheroes, comics tell stories of your users and your products. Comics can provide your organization with an exciting and effective alternative to slogging through requirements documents and long reports. In See What I Mean, Kevin Cheng, OK/Cancel founder/cartoonist and founder of Off Panel Productions, will teach you how you can use comics as a powerful communication tool without trained illustrators.
This book will help you:
* Learn a method to document your organization's work, ideas and vision in a way that any project teammate, customer or manager will readily understand and consume
* Put the "story" back in "storyboarding" and really describe the user experience from the users' perspective
* Include the use of comics in the product development life cycle to prevent wasted time and resources spent building the wrong product
* Use comics as a way to engage users early and solicit their feedback
* Sell the value of the method to the rest of your organization
* Discover the properties of the comics medium that make them so much more than either words or pictures
In See What I Mean, Kevin will walk you step by step through the process of using comics to communicate, and provide examples from industry leaders who have already adopted this method.
This book will help you:
* Learn a method to document your organization's work, ideas and vision in a way that any project teammate, customer or manager will readily understand and consume
* Put the "story" back in "storyboarding" and really describe the user experience from the users' perspective
* Include the use of comics in the product development life cycle to prevent wasted time and resources spent building the wrong product
* Use comics as a way to engage users early and solicit their feedback
* Sell the value of the method to the rest of your organization
* Discover the properties of the comics medium that make them so much more than either words or pictures
In See What I Mean, Kevin will walk you step by step through the process of using comics to communicate, and provide examples from industry leaders who have already adopted this method.
202 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
26 people are currently reading
444 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Cheng
6 books12 followersKevin is the co-founder and President of Incredible Labs, a startup that's creating a mobile personal assistant named Donna. Previously, he was a product manager at Twitter, leading the redesign of the website, the Director of User Experience at the gaming social network Raptr, and the designer of Yahoo! Pipes. He also co-founded the user experience web comic OK/Cancel, and the online comic publishing network Off Panel Productions.
He holds a Masters degree from University College London in Human Computer Interaction and Ergonomics and has presented about design, comics, and augmented reality at numerous conferences including Interaction, IA Summit, User Interface Conference, UXWeek, and South by Southwest. He likes the flavour of the blue crayons the best.
One day, Kevin hopes to be able to answer all questions related to design by simply referencing comic strips.
He holds a Masters degree from University College London in Human Computer Interaction and Ergonomics and has presented about design, comics, and augmented reality at numerous conferences including Interaction, IA Summit, User Interface Conference, UXWeek, and South by Southwest. He likes the flavour of the blue crayons the best.
One day, Kevin hopes to be able to answer all questions related to design by simply referencing comic strips.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 10, 2016
This is helpful how-to (and evangelizing) book for using visual storytelling in UX and product design work. I hope to use these methods, soon!
May 5, 2018
Short and nifty book about using comics to sell a product or an idea. Covers everything from storyline, composition, point of views, techniques etc. More useful for those who don't have a good idea of what's great about the comic format or new people looking to learn a new tool of communication.
February 1, 2021
A great introduction to comics but most important, at least in my case, enough to use it as a tool to communicate a product vision or simplify requirements for stakeholders that do not need so much detail but it's critical to get a shared understanding before implementing.
November 20, 2017
Excellent book about the how to use comics for communication, and also acts as a good guide on how to get started with creating comics.
July 17, 2019
It does give me some new ideas
I’m thinking about using Comics in my work. But I still think that I should learn much more details about drawing and storytelling.
I’m thinking about using Comics in my work. But I still think that I should learn much more details about drawing and storytelling.
December 8, 2013
See what I mean? See what I mean like other Rosenfeld Media books is a well written self-standing book that covers the use of comics in the product development process. If the goal is to communicate the framework for integrating comics in to the technology design process-- the book is successful.
Cheng creates a case study (that is later unceremoniously dropped and never revisited) focusing on Comics as a marketing communication-- but I came away convinced more so of Comics importances in the early stage validation of an idea or concept.
Surprisingly this book was written as well... a book; where it may have been better served as 60% written in comic with supplementary text.
Kevin's detours into teaching people to draw seemed a bit disjointed. The information and techniques covered in the books are not comprehensive enough to take someone who is not inclined to draw to confident comic creator-- so the target audience is really someone committed enough to spend a few weeks learning to draw or someone already comfortable enough with drawing to take the step into applying it to creating comics.
For people who are not fully confident in their sketching skills (myself included), I recommend taking some of Kevin's examples (particularly his appendix) and turning them into exercises. For example-- 30 sketches of each emotional expression or 10 sketches each of each of the scene. It may sound arduous but relearning pen/pencil control is in my opinion a needed step to increasing comic proficiency,
There is no doubt that with some of the forward thinking on sketching advanced by Adaptive Path that comics and sketching will play an increased role in the UX process (even while others push to replace front end research with a prototyping phase) and this book- like Donna Spencers' Card Sorting (also a Rosenfeld book) will be a life saving resource to many a designer tasked with incorporating comics into the design and communication process.
Cheng creates a case study (that is later unceremoniously dropped and never revisited) focusing on Comics as a marketing communication-- but I came away convinced more so of Comics importances in the early stage validation of an idea or concept.
Surprisingly this book was written as well... a book; where it may have been better served as 60% written in comic with supplementary text.
Kevin's detours into teaching people to draw seemed a bit disjointed. The information and techniques covered in the books are not comprehensive enough to take someone who is not inclined to draw to confident comic creator-- so the target audience is really someone committed enough to spend a few weeks learning to draw or someone already comfortable enough with drawing to take the step into applying it to creating comics.
For people who are not fully confident in their sketching skills (myself included), I recommend taking some of Kevin's examples (particularly his appendix) and turning them into exercises. For example-- 30 sketches of each emotional expression or 10 sketches each of each of the scene. It may sound arduous but relearning pen/pencil control is in my opinion a needed step to increasing comic proficiency,
There is no doubt that with some of the forward thinking on sketching advanced by Adaptive Path that comics and sketching will play an increased role in the UX process (even while others push to replace front end research with a prototyping phase) and this book- like Donna Spencers' Card Sorting (also a Rosenfeld book) will be a life saving resource to many a designer tasked with incorporating comics into the design and communication process.
July 5, 2015
What I liked:
-There’s a solid introduction to comics without belaboring a study of sequential art.
-Great tips on how to get started quickly in creating your own comics for planning out projects.
-Excellent examples of comics in use in the industry.
-The comics that front each chapter cover the topics really quickly, allowing for a really fast read through for those not interested in the nitty gritty.
What I didn’t like:
-I was hoping for more of an explanation of how best to integrate comics into existing planning processes. The example lays out the creation of a comic rather than how to meet a business case with one.
Bottom line:
This book has a good explanation of comics and is very practically minded. For those not used to taking comics seriously, this text is a great place to get them jump-started on making comics. I was hoping for something different which I can’t fault the book for. A great high-level read.
-There’s a solid introduction to comics without belaboring a study of sequential art.
-Great tips on how to get started quickly in creating your own comics for planning out projects.
-Excellent examples of comics in use in the industry.
-The comics that front each chapter cover the topics really quickly, allowing for a really fast read through for those not interested in the nitty gritty.
What I didn’t like:
-I was hoping for more of an explanation of how best to integrate comics into existing planning processes. The example lays out the creation of a comic rather than how to meet a business case with one.
Bottom line:
This book has a good explanation of comics and is very practically minded. For those not used to taking comics seriously, this text is a great place to get them jump-started on making comics. I was hoping for something different which I can’t fault the book for. A great high-level read.
June 17, 2013
Read this for the local UX book club. I found it complementary to the books: "Understanding Comics" and "Sketching the User Experience." Our book club discussion centered around the applicability of comics or that form of storyboard sketching in our personal situations. Frankly, I don't get to do this much, but it might be useful in the process of designing personas. It did reinforce my belief that I need to practice sketching more!
January 10, 2013
I finished this book either the day I got it in the mail or the day after. It's a slim volume that has a lot to offer. I especially enjoyed the comics at the beginning of each chapter that mirrored the text that followed, as they clearly illustrated the overall lessons of the book. I can't wait to use this technique sometime.
July 12, 2014
This book is easy to read and gives helps you to understand how to put your words into images to communicate better.
This book is not to learn how to draw or for people who already does, but still gives you enough so you can do things your self and communicate those ideas to others.
This book is not to learn how to draw or for people who already does, but still gives you enough so you can do things your self and communicate those ideas to others.
December 19, 2013
Teaches you a process how to come up with a comic e.g. for a storyboard. Every chapter starts with a comic which summarizes the chapter. So it practices what it preaches.
August 5, 2013
Read for August's User Experience Book Club Vancouver.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews