Abstract:

The Millenial generation corners the majority of the current university student body, as well as of young professionals that start their path in the labor market. This generation shows clearly a preference for consuming digital contents, which are mainly based on the use of a graphic language. Therefore, there is somehow a certain concern in adapting the platforms used for disseminating academic contents (both in formal and informal contexts) to this novel paradigm, trying to boost, this way, their impact and retention on the target population, above mentioned.

These graphical contexts are especially relevant in the communication processes that are related to creative work contexts, such is the design discipline, in all its various specialties. There, it is a common practice reinforcing oral contents with visual supporting materials in order to ease their comprehension. Concretely, in Digital Sketching it is usual resorting to presentations with examples of the results that have to be obtained, or to videos where the procedures to follow (to obtain these results) are showed.

Lately, the use of methodologies as Flipped Learning, or of Informal Learning platforms, such as MOOCs, is becoming popular. Both base the communication processes on the use of Videos for Learning, thus aligning with the preferences of the younger generations and broadening the communication space outside the formal academic scope.

However, despite the use of videos can be sometimes very didactic, they have some limitations when illustrating strategies for Digital Sketching. Videos in that latter context are usually divided into specific-contents covering ones: short videos focusing on concrete and narrowed down steps of the procedures, and procedural ones: long videos covering all the needed steps, from a beginning to an end. The first ones facilitate locating specific ideas, but hamper the mental structuring of a whole procedure sequence, as its different steps are presented in films. On the other hand, the second type allows a more integrated vision of the procedure, but they are cumbersome when needing to locate the point where a concrete idea is developed, throughout its length.

Therefore, the analysis of the graphical language that is used in the Pinterest social network is particularly interesting. It is often based on the use of thematic boards where a collection of images is shown. Additionally, it is common finding, in that social network, visual sequential explanations on the procedure to follow for drawing elements of the human body (generally from a comic or illustration context). These kinds of displays allow easily communicating, at a glance, the whole procedure for developing a graphical element. So, they are not only an attractive language for the younger generations (which facilitates a closer dialogue with these graphical objects), but also help covering diverse ideas at a fast pace.

Taking all this into account, our work proposes the use of sequential graphical boards, similar to the ones appearing at Pinterest, as a means for presenting tools, procedures and strategies for Digital Sketching. They will be centered in the exclusive use of graphical language as a vehicular platform for communicating and constructing graphical conceptual proposals for industrial design products, in their initial stage of the creative process.

Keywords:

Pinterest, Conceptual Design, Digital Sketching, Informal Learning, Videos for Learning.