Using Artefact Cards: Dena Walker

How did you think you’d use the cards?

Primarily for helping me to plan the content flow of presentations and lectures. I have always done something similar with the standard address cards you can get from the stationery store, or sometimes I would tear up the A5 pads from work’s meeting rooms (sorry Boss!), but they were a bit cumbersome and would invariably get dog-eared from being bulldog clipped together and chucked in my handbag, which drove me a bit potty.

How did you actually use them?

I do use them for presentation and lecture planning, but I’ve also used them for more collaborative projects, especially in work. I have really found them to be as tactile as they were described.

People instinctively want to pick them up and move them around, which means that everyone gets stuck in to play around with the development of a thought, idea, presentation etc. Using them really seems to get people more invested in a project from the get-go, which is great.

I’m also currently learning Chinese and they’re great to use as cue cards to test myself on key words and phrases. Keeping them in the little box means I can carry them around with me really easily without them getting tattered and practice more often.

Somewhat indulgently, I use them to write my shopping lists on. The size of them and their bright colour means they slot into my purse really easily and I don’t forget to look at them.

Have they changed the way you do anything?

I’m not sure how much they’ve changed the way I do things, but they’ve definitely improved the things I do. I find that my presentation thinking is more focussed before I commit a thought to a card, (they’re too pretty to mess up!) and I’m fitting in a lot more Chinese practice than I probably would have done without them, much to my teacher’s delight. I also return home forgetting to buy loo roll a lot less often nowadays, which is a bit of a boon.

How do you describe them to others?
A little box of cards that are greater than the sum of their parts.

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