Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 111
 Great item, fast ship! June 15, 2009
Charlie M. Kearney
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
First Amazon purchase. Super please. Item is textbook for class and I got it really quick and in excellent condition. Thanks!
 Very Useful Skill June 9, 2009
Daniel Limbach (Algonquin, IL United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've always admired people who can convey a complex message in a simple manner. This book shows how basic drawing skills can be used to illustrate complex concepts. And it succeeds.
It won't teach you how to be a cartoonist or fine artist. It will teach you how to use basic shapes to draw people and processes better.
The recent UPS commercials with the whiteboard are excellent examples of the ideas in this book.
I wish the author used more real examples rather than devoting so many pages to why it works. We know if it works if we understand the drawings in the examples. Bottom line - more illustrations, less explanation.
In fact, I would love to see 150 pages of illustrations and maybe only 50 pages of text. The book would then practice what it preaches.
 unconvincing, doesnt do what it preaches, boring June 8, 2009
Daniel Unger (Atlanta, GA United States)
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
suggestions for the author:
1. since ur case is about communicating thru back of the napkin drawings and schemas, do so. seth godin's supportive commment on the back of the book was a hint, to u.
2. dont waste my time telling me how good the book or how great ur method is, how people that work w/ u think u r genius or how many big corporations have hired u; the reader doesnt care and didnt buy the book to read ur self-promotion, we never heard of u.
3. dont preach about the brain, cognition, perception or how the mind works, it is far from ur area of expertise; it is also, according to u, not the goal of the book. stick to ur goal.
Challenges conventional thinking May 22, 2009
Paul A. Baker (Madison, Wis., US)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Dan Roam shows how to take an immensely complicated problem, break it down into constituent parts, explain how things work, identify what is missing, and develop an elegant solution.
An important part of the process involves sketching pictures, because pictures can represent complex concepts and summarize vast sets of information in ways that are easy to see and understand.
Roam presents a case study of a software business facing declining sales. Across six chapters he applies a different visual framework for approaching the problem. He applies the 6 'W' questions we were taught to ask in journalism class, and then walks us through a visual imagination activation tool he calls SQVID, a series of 5 questions that brings an initial idea to visual clarity and to refine its focus.
Combining the six `W' questions and the 5 imagination-focusing SQVID questions creates a powerful analytical tool. Before we know it, solutions begin to appear on the page.
Where's the beef? May 14, 2009
Ken Botwinick (Newton Center, MA USA)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
To me this seems all sizzle and no steak. The best part of the book is Appendix B which lists better books to read.
Showing reviews 16-20 of 111
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