Join the great NYC UX Book Club community along with VizThinkNYC at Liquidnet this July to talk about solving problems with pictures and our latest summer reading, Unfolding the Napkin.
Date: Thursday, July 22, 2010
Time: 6:00PM – 8:00PM
Location: 498 Seventh Ave, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10019
Book: Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems With Simple Pictures
By: Dan Roam
The NYC UX Book Club is back! And along with VizThinkNYC we’ve got a great event in store for our next get-together.
For our summer gathering we decided to follow up on VizThink NYC’s fun and interactive exploration of visual thinking and problem-solving based on the revolutionary work of Dan Roam with a good old book club delving into his latest work, Unfolding the Napkin.
Unfolding the Napkin is Dan Roam’s reworked version of his original book, Back of the Napkin, where he laid out a framework and explored a set of tools to solve any problem using pictures. Unfolding the Napkin walks us through a series of hands-on exercises and case studies that will help us hone our built-in visual problem solving skills and leave us with another tool in our kit to tackle whatever problems we face. Don’t worry if you can’t draw. We’re not talking about art here. The book is broken up into four individual workshops that guide us through the four stages of visual problem solving:
* Look
* See
* Imagine
* Show
As an added twist we are anticipating several informal, off-the-cuff gatherings to go through these activities together between now and the July 22nd gathering. It doesn’t take any more than three or four people, the book, and a pencil to make it happen. Look for announcements here or on twitter (hashtag #unfoldnyc). Feel free to call a gathering publicly or privately. And don’t worry if you don’t go through the exercises with a group, they work just as well alone.
If all that isn’t enough, we will be holding the gathering at Liquidnet’s spectacular midtown educational space. Many thanks to MJ Broadbent and the folks at Liquidnet for their continued commitment to innovation and education through hosting events like this one. If you haven’t been to Liquidnet for an gathering like this, you’re in for a treat.
Space is limited and security requires a full list to enter the building so please RSVP on our facebook group.
Here are the details:
Schedule:
6:30-7:00 Drinks and mingling
7:00-8:30 Group discussions (maybe some drawing)
8:30-9:00 Farewells and, for those interested, food and drink somewhere nearby
About the Book:
Dan Roam’s The Back of the Napkin, a BusinessWeek bestseller, taught readers the power of brainstorming and communicating with pictures. It introduced a completely new way to look at problems and see solutions, from the boardroom to the sales floor to the cubicle.
This companion workbook, Unfolding the Napkin, helps readers put Dan’s principles into practice with step-by-step guidelines. It’s filled with detailed case studies, guided do-it-yourself exercises, and plenty of blank space for drawing. Roam structured the book as a complete four-day visual-thinking seminar, taking readers step-by-step from “I can’t draw” to “Here is the picture I drew that I think will save the world.”
Unfolding the Napkin teaches readers how to:
* Improve our three “built-in” visual problem solving tools.
* Apply the four-step visual thinking process (look-see-imagine-show) in any business situation.
* Instantly improve our visual imaginations.
* Learn how to recognize the type of problem we face and corresponding pictorial solution.
The Back of the Napkin introduced visual thinking; Unfolding the Napkin is the guidebook that will soon be heavily marked up and dogeared.
Hope to see you there!
The UX Book Club Planning Team
Join the great NYC UX Book Club community along with VizThinkNYC at Liquidnet this July to talk about solving problems with pictures and our latest summer reading, Unfolding the Napkin.

Date: Thursday, July 22, 2010
Time: 6:30PM – 8:30PM
Location: 498 Seventh Ave, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10019
Book: Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems With Simple Pictures
By: Dan Roam
The NYC UX Book Club is back! And along with VizThinkNYC we’ve got a great event in store for our next get-together.
For our summer gathering we decided to follow up on VizThink NYC’s fun and interactive exploration of visual thinking and problem-solving based on the revolutionary work of Dan Roam with a good old book club delving into his latest work, Unfolding the Napkin.
Unfolding the Napkin is Dan Roam’s reworked version of his original book, Back of the Napkin, where he laid out a framework and explored a set of tools to solve any problem using pictures. Unfolding the Napkin walks us through a series of hands-on exercises and case studies that will help us hone our built-in visual problem solving skills and leave us with another tool in our kit to tackle whatever problems we face. Don’t worry if you can’t draw. We’re not talking about art here. The book is broken up into four individual workshops that guide us through the four stages of visual problem solving:
As an added twist we are anticipating several informal, off-the-cuff gatherings to go through these activities together between now and the July 22nd gathering. It doesn’t take any more than three or four people, the book, and a pencil to make it happen. Look for announcements here or on twitter (hashtag #unfoldnyc). Feel free to call a gathering publicly or privately. And don’t worry if you don’t go through the exercises with a group, they work just as well alone.
If all that isn’t enough, we will be holding the gathering at Liquidnet’s spectacular midtown educational space. Many thanks to MJ Broadbent and the folks at Liquidnet for their continued commitment to innovation and education through hosting events like this one. If you haven’t been to Liquidnet for an gathering like this, you’re in for a treat.
Space is limited and security requires a full list to enter the building so please RSVP on our facebook group.
Here are the details:
Schedule:
6:30-7:00 Drinks and mingling
7:00-8:30 Group discussions (maybe some drawing)
8:30-9:00 Farewells and, for those interested, food and drink somewhere nearby
About the Book:
Dan Roam’s The Back of the Napkin, a BusinessWeek bestseller, taught readers the power of brainstorming and communicating with pictures. It introduced a completely new way to look at problems and see solutions, from the boardroom to the sales floor to the cubicle.
This companion workbook, Unfolding the Napkin, helps readers put Dan’s principles into practice with step-by-step guidelines. It’s filled with detailed case studies, guided do-it-yourself exercises, and plenty of blank space for drawing. Roam structured the book as a complete four-day visual-thinking seminar, taking readers step-by-step from “I can’t draw” to “Here is the picture I drew that I think will save the world.”
Unfolding the Napkin teaches readers how to:
- Improve our three “built-in” visual problem solving tools.
- Apply the four-step visual thinking process (look-see-imagine-show) in any business situation.
- Instantly improve our visual imaginations.
- Learn how to recognize the type of problem we face and corresponding pictorial solution.
The Back of the Napkin introduced visual thinking; Unfolding the Napkin is the guidebook that will soon be heavily marked up and dogeared.
Hope to see you there!
- The UX Book Club Planning Team