How to buy a plot and build a house

 From Empty Plot to Dream Home: My Journey in Visual Storytelling

This blog chronicles my journey to develop a visual instructional guide on purchasing a plot of land and constructing a house. Through sketches, and user testing, I investigated how to communicate multifaceted steps purely without text. Follow along as I discuss my development, setbacks, and revelations!


Day 1: Getting Started

Today, we were assigned topics for the instructional design project by picking random numbers. I got number six: "How to Buy a Plot and Build a House." At first, I thought, "How will I explain something so complicated without using any text?" But I decided to take it step by step.


I started by researching the process:

  1. Finding land: Location, budget, and legal checks.

  2. Legal stuff: Loans, contracts, and permits.

  3. Design: Working with architects and getting approvals.

  4. Construction: Hiring contractors and building the house.


I also consulted visual guides and infographics for inspiration. These helped me realize that simple icons and clear visuals can make even complex steps easy to understand.

By the end of the day, I had a rough sketch of the process. For example, I used a magnifying glass for "searching for land" and a document icon for "legal steps." It’s not perfect yet, but it’s a start.


Key Takeaways:

  • Breaking down the process into smaller steps makes it less overwhelming.

  • Visuals can replace text if they’re clear and simple.

  • Research is key to getting the details right.


Inspiration:
References:





Day 2: Sketching and Refining Ideas

Today, I focused on turning my rough ideas into actual sketches. I started by listing all the key steps in the process of buying a plot and building a house. Then, I tried to visualize each step using simple icons.


Here’s what I worked on:

  1. Finding land: I drew a map icon and a cursor pointing on a plot to represent searching for the perfect location.

  2. Legal steps: I drew a human doing an environmental survey with a checkmark to show getting permits and approvals.

  3. Design: I sketched two humans to represent buying a plot.

I shared my sketches with a friend to get feedback. They suggested making the icons more consistent in style, so I spent some time refining them.

By the end of the day, I had a clearer idea of how the final visuals would look. 


Key Takeaways:





Sketching


















Day 3-4: Finalizing Paper Visuals and Testing

The last few days were all about refining my hand-drawn sketches and preparing them for the presentation. Since we’re not allowed to use digital tools, I focused on making my paper visuals as clear and professional as possible. 


Here’s what I did:

  1. Refining sketches: I redrew my icons to make them cleaner and more consistent.

  2. Testing with others: I showed my visuals to a few friends and asked them to guess what each step represented. Their feedback was super helpful! For example, they suggested adding more context to the "legal steps".

  3. Preparing for the presentation: I organized my visuals into a logical sequence and practiced explaining them without using any text. It was challenging, but I realized that gestures and pointing to specific parts of the visuals can help a lot.


Key Takeaways:

  • Hand-drawn visuals can be just as effective as digital ones if they’re clear and consistent.

  • Practicing the presentation helps you feel more confident.


  • Inspiration:



  • Final results!

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