# Doodle People > By David Bingham · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/ > Work by David Bingham. Doodle People is a notation I have built over about a decade for explaining complex systems to people who do not share my vocabulary: stick figures in stable costumes, objects drawn plainly enough to name themselves, and scenes that put the two together. It began on whiteboards in co-creation sessions during the GE years, moved to an iPad for presentations, and was organised into a catalogue of vector drawings in Concepts. At Workday it carried a complete product design process as a poster hung in several offices; at Schneider Electric I recoloured the set and published it as a shared Figma library that other designers used in their own diagrams. The whiteboard hand and the drawn library are both still in use. - **Period:** 2014–present ## Doodle People Block `doodle-people/opener` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#opener Doodle People is the hand-drawn notation I use to explain complex systems: stick figures in stable costumes, plainly drawn objects, and scenes that put them together. It started on whiteboards, moved to an iPad, and became a shared library other designers draw with. - Image: Eight stick figures in a row in green and black: a thumbs-up, a tie, a bearded one with a laptop, a striped one with a spanner, a wave, a capped one, a wide-eyed one and one in glasses at a laptop. My signature style to communicate personas and scenarios. ## Statement Block `doodle-people/statement` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#statement The page's opening paragraph, in my words: why I draw, how the doodle person came to be the unit of the system, and what the rest of the page holds. Drawings allow ideas to be communicated in ways that language alone cannot achieve. As my work extends into more and more complex domains and systems, I've developed a drawing style that is direct, quick to produce, and scalable to explain different situations. The unit of this system is the doodle person. An expressive and adjustable individual that embodies persona attributes and situates into stories. These characters have been reproduced on numerous whiteboards and formal diagrams and have transcended language barriers with clarity and a bit of humour. Below is the entire collection of doodle people with workshop examples and composite diagrams from projects found elsewhere throughout this portfolio. ## Rooms Block `doodle-people/rooms` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#rooms Two rooms where the notation is drawn live: a long whiteboard wall in Japan in 2015 where three of us sketch the figures beside the notes, and a glass wall in 2017 where four people study a journey on taped-up paper. The drawing is a facilitation tool here, not an illustration made afterwards. - Image: Three people at a long whiteboard wall of stick figures and notes in a meeting room, one of them drawing. - Image: Four people studying a journey drawn on sheets of paper taped to a glass wall, stick figures and blue sticky notes along the flow. ## Workflow storyboard Block `doodle-people/workflow-storyboard` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#workflow-storyboard A numbered workflow of stick figures drawn live in a Japanese office in 2015, with a participant adding a sticky note, beside a 2022 whiteboard storyboard of a strategy presentation. Seven years apart, the same figures doing the same job: holding a group on one picture. - Image: Two men at a whiteboard in a Japanese office, one adding a yellow sticky note to a numbered workflow of stick figures labelled in English and Japanese. - Image: A whiteboard storyboard of a strategy presentation in six numbered steps, from research to next steps, with stick figures and small screen thumbnails. ## Boards Block `doodle-people/boards` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#boards Two boards drawn in one sitting: a 2016 glass board with a role matrix of sticky notes and a gateway system sketch, and a 2018 board laying out problem and solution space with a Venn diagram of business, design and tech. - Image: A glass whiteboard with an importance-against-effort matrix of magenta sticky notes for installer and fleet-manager roles, a gateway and controller system sketch with stick figures, and rows of green and yellow pilot notes along the foot. - Image: A whiteboard in green, blue and pink: problem and solution space, a Venn diagram of business, design and tech, and a benefit table of stick-figure roles. ## Flow and slides Block `doodle-people/flow-and-slides` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#flow-and-slides A 2018 parts inspection flow from supplier to cloud, drawn in one pass with stick figures, trucks and a factory, beside a 2020 Workday board headed Please don't erase that walks a slide-building flow step by step. - Image: A whiteboard sketch of a parts inspection flow from supplier to cloud, drawn with stick figures, trucks and a factory, yellow sticky notes marking the steps. - Image: A whiteboard headed Please don't erase: a numbered flow of stick figures from needing information to creating, hydrating and presenting slides, with pink and green sticky notes, and lists for a people slide and a person card at the right. ## Wall detail Block `doodle-people/wall-detail` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#wall-detail A whiteboard from March 2024 for the Schneider Advisor work, with three details pulled out: the personas, the installation flow and the partner community idea. The board holds six bold ideas in one picture so the team can argue about them together. - Image: A whiteboard filled edge to edge with an orange, blue and green storyboard of app screens, stick figures and notes, blue sticky notes marking bold ideas 1 to 6. - 1.1 3.2 17.9 17.7 - Image: A whiteboard corner headed Personas with five coloured stick figures labelled owner, monitor, maintain, support and account management. - 26.9 25.2 24.6 24.3 - Image: Whiteboard detail of a field engineer in orange validating a delivery against a checklist screen, with a mobile view for sensor install below. - 78.3 3.7 20.0 20.0 - Image: Whiteboard detail of three orange field engineers labelled A, B or C beside notes on an EcoField partner community and a sticky note reading bold idea 5. ## Advisor storyline Block `doodle-people/advisor-storyline` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#advisor-storyline The storyline drawn from the 2024 board, as one continuous vector drawing cut into three segments: an alert leaving a building, recommendations becoming a report in a repository, and a job reaching a technician on their phone. This is the whiteboard idea redrawn clean enough to present. - Image: An office building sends an alert through a cloud to a green-capped engineer with a tablet, who turns it into recommendations with evidence tags. - Image: Green-capped engineers build a report of recommendations and a plan, then send it to a repository listing Acme, Corp and Amaz. - Image: A recommendation reaches a field technician in a hard hat as a mobile notification, a job preview and a job calendar on three phone screens. *Three equal segments, left to right.* ## Framework whiteboard Block `doodle-people/framework-whiteboard` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#framework-whiteboard The whiteboard on which the key moments of the product development process were first sketched at Workday, with a note asking colleagues not to erase it. It is the rough draft of the poster that follows. - Image: A glass whiteboard with three idea types drawn in purple, orange and pink, each a chain of stick figures and screens from definition through research to delivery. The key moments and rituals across the product development process were sketched then formally drawn into a large-format poster displayed in multiple office locations. ## Framework Block `doodle-people/framework` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#framework The Product Design Framework poster: the whole product development process from Harvest to Measure drawn end to end in the notation, with a role legend and a toolbox. It was printed large and hung in several offices. - Image: A wide poster of the product design process in nine columns from Harvest to Measure, each illustrated with small stick-figure scenes, with a purpose note, role legend and tool-logo footer. ## Rec living Block `doodle-people/rec-living` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#rec-living Four boards for the Rec Living concept, covering delivery, maintenance, meal planning and solar charge. The same figures and objects are used to storyboard a consumer product rather than an enterprise one. - Delivery - Image: Delivery - Maintenance - Image: Maintenance - Meal planning - Image: Meal planning - Solar charge - Image: Solar charge ## Workday templates Block `doodle-people/workday-templates` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#workday-templates A product diagram from my time at Workday explaining how an author converts a workbook into a template. It shows the notation doing everyday product work rather than storytelling. - Image: A diagram of an author in orange converting a workbook into a template, annotated distribute on or off and editable like workbook. ## Workday inbox Block `doodle-people/workday-inbox` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#workday-inbox Eight boards drawn for the Workday Inbox and notifications work, in order from the overall flow and legend through search, tagging, audiences, notifications and their controls, content and the design system. Drawn to walk a team through a feature area end to end. - 00 · Inbox flow - Image: 00 · Inbox flow - 05 · Notifications control - Image: 05 · Notifications control - 00 · Inbox legend - Image: 00 · Inbox legend - 01 · Inbox search - Image: 01 · Inbox search - 02 · Inbox tagging - Image: 02 · Inbox tagging - 03 · Campaigns audience - Image: 03 · Campaigns audience - 04 · Notifications - Image: 04 · Notifications - 06 · Content - Image: 06 · Content - 07 · Design system - Image: 07 · Design system ## Problem to solution Block `doodle-people/problem-to-solution` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#problem-to-solution A designer leading people from a problem space, through focusing and understanding, to a solution space of products, processes, and services, aligned and designed. - Image: A diagram in two funnels: on the left, Problem Space, a confused person; a green line zigzags through Focus + Understand past a designer at the narrow middle, then Align + Design opens to the right, Solution Space, with products, processes and services. — My role as a designer and researcher ## Diagrams pair Block `doodle-people/diagrams-pair` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#diagrams-pair Two diagrams side by side: decision making shifting over time from 100% human to 100% analytic, the system learning from an aging workforce and then supporting the less experienced many; and the overlap of business, design, and technology, with business challenges and enabling capabilities on either side. - Image: A chart of decision making over time, a diagonal splitting it from 100% Human at left to 100% Analytic at right; notes read System Learns From Humans, over an older worker labeled Aging Workforce (few), and Optimized Hybrid Decision Making, over a younger one labeled Less Experienced (many). — AI transition - Image: Three overlapping circles labeled Business, Design and Technology; blue arrows join two businesspeople with a Business Challenges thought bubble at the upper left, a designer at a whiteboard moving Current to Desirable at the right, and two people at a laptop under Enabling Capabilities at the lower left. — Business, design, technology ## Diagrams Block `doodle-people/diagrams` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#diagrams Larger compositions that use the notation to carry an argument: product triads, adoption curves, loops, prioritisation and the transition from current to future state. Many began as workshop moves, so the drawing is also a record of the method. - Scanner - Image: Scanner - Chat knowledge migration - Image: Chat knowledge migration - User stories mapping - Image: User stories mapping - Rolestitles - Image: Rolestitles - Product alignment - Image: Product alignment - Relate outcomes - Image: Relate outcomes - Value calculator - Image: Value calculator - Product triad bus - Image: Product triad bus - Chat relationship - Image: Chat relationship - Prioritization - Image: Prioritization - Knowledge channels - Image: Knowledge channels - Loop - Image: Loop - Prioritize outcomes - Image: Prioritize outcomes - Snail - Image: Snail - Ailoop - Image: Ailoop - Multichannel assistant - Image: Multichannel assistant - Multichannel assistant 2 - Image: Multichannel assistant 2 - Current to future - Image: Current to future - Chance to remember - Image: Chance to remember - Triforce - Image: Triforce - Adoption curve 1 - Image: Adoption curve 1 - Transform roles - Image: Transform roles - AI transition (2018) - Image: AI transition (2018) - Product triad - Image: Product triad - Workflow pain mapping - Image: Workflow pain mapping - Triad - Image: Triad - Stakeholder mapping - Image: Stakeholder mapping - Capture outcomes - Image: Capture outcomes - Duo - Image: Duo - Adoption curve 2 - Image: Adoption curve 2 - Miniloop - Image: Miniloop - Feedbackmini - Image: Feedbackmini - Conwayslaw - Image: Conwayslaw ## Scenes Block `doodle-people/scenes` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#scenes Scenes put characters and objects together into a situation: a workshop, a sprint demo, a site visit, a bug squish. The first eleven are a numbered set of service concepts; the rest cover the moments of a product process and are the drawings I reach for most in decks and diagrams. - 01 · No news is good news - Image: 01 · No news is good news - 02 · Those like you - Image: 02 · Those like you - 03 · Financial statement - Image: 03 · Financial statement - 04 · Service GPT - Image: 04 · Service GPT - 05 · Human touch - Image: 05 · Human touch - 06 · Live report - Image: 06 · Live report - 07 · Recommendations - Image: 07 · Recommendations - 08 · Expert seminar - Image: 08 · Expert seminar - 09 · Lunch club - Image: 09 · Lunch club - 10 · Sneak peek - Image: 10 · Sneak peek - 11 · Leaderboard - Image: 11 · Leaderboard - Usage analytics - Image: Usage analytics - Story mapping - Image: Story mapping - Brainstorming - Image: Brainstorming - Journey mapping - Image: Journey mapping - Roadmapping - Image: Roadmapping - Workshopping - Image: Workshopping - Planning - Image: Planning - Group thinking - Image: Group thinking - Sprint planning - Image: Sprint planning - Development discussion - Image: Development discussion - Sprint demo 1 - Image: Sprint demo 1 - Co design - Image: Co design - Conference - Image: Conference - Users using - Image: Users using - Co development - Image: Co development - Heuristic evaluation - Image: Heuristic evaluation - Release announcement - Image: Release announcement - User score - Image: User score - Sprint demo 2 - Image: Sprint demo 2 - Discussion - Image: Discussion - Design QA - Image: Design QA - Which advisor - Image: Which advisor - Bug squish - Image: Bug squish - Hot ticket - Image: Hot ticket - Handshake - Image: Handshake - Devordev - Image: Devordev - User demo - Image: User demo - Celebration - Image: Celebration - Design sketch - Image: Design sketch - Development - Image: Development - Site visit - Image: Site visit - Design review - Image: Design review - Usability feedback - Image: Usability feedback - Interviewing - Image: Interviewing - Workload - Image: Workload ## Cast Block `doodle-people/cast` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#cast The cast of characters as individual vector drawings, exported from Concepts. A small set of costumes crossed with a small set of gestures gives most of the figures, so the set reads as a system rather than a collection; the minis are the same roles reduced for use inside diagrams. - Glasses · question - Image: Glasses · question - Glasses · exclamation - Image: Glasses · exclamation - Maintdude - Image: Maintdude - Conway - Image: Conway - Custnerd - Image: Custnerd - Howto CSM - Image: Howto CSM - Dev · lightbulb - Image: Dev · lightbulb - IoT engineer - Image: IoT engineer - Tophat · lightbulb - Image: Tophat · lightbulb - Tophat - Image: Tophat - Boss 2 - Image: Boss 2 - Senerd - Image: Senerd - CSH confused - Image: CSH confused - Nerd excite - Image: Nerd excite - Whattosell - Image: Whattosell - Nerdboss - Image: Nerdboss - Dev · hello - Image: Dev · hello - Toomanytools - Image: Toomanytools - Custboss - Image: Custboss - Security - Image: Security - Bluestripes - Image: Bluestripes - Bagomoney - Image: Bagomoney - Bossnerd - Image: Bossnerd - Bluestripe · lightbulb - Image: Bluestripe · lightbulb - Bluestripe · huh - Image: Bluestripe · huh - Diagram - Image: Diagram - Belt · hello - Image: Belt · hello - Belt - Image: Belt - Glasses · confused - Image: Glasses · confused - Glasses · hello - Image: Glasses · hello - Boss · confused - Image: Boss · confused - Glasses · research - Image: Glasses · research - Glasses · point - Image: Glasses · point - Glasses · thinking - Image: Glasses · thinking - Boss · coat - Image: Boss · coat - Glasses · gesture - Image: Glasses · gesture - Boss · lightbulb - Image: Boss · lightbulb - Glasses · thumbsup - Image: Glasses · thumbsup - Tie - Image: Tie - Spy - Image: Spy - Spy · lightbulb - Image: Spy · lightbulb - Blockhead - Image: Blockhead - Guru - Image: Guru - Dev 2 · mini - Image: Dev 2 · mini - IoT engineer · mini - Image: IoT engineer · mini - Boss · mini - Image: Boss · mini - Custnerd · mini - Image: Custnerd · mini - Bossnerd · mini - Image: Bossnerd · mini - Senerd · mini - Image: Senerd · mini - Dev 1 · mini - Image: Dev 1 · mini - Maint · mini - Image: Maint · mini - CSM · mini - Image: CSM · mini - Sales · mini - Image: Sales · mini ## People sheets Block `doodle-people/people-sheets` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#people-sheets Two of the original canvases the characters were drawn on: a sheet of the early cast, and a study of four figures recoloured in green, blue and red. The second is how I tested the set in a different brand palette before publishing it. - Image: A sheet of about thirty stick-figure characters in coloured costumes: hard hats, a top hat, a ninja, a headset, a money bag and a lightbulb. - Image: Three rows of the same four stick figures recoloured green, blue and red: a badge, a tie, a capped figure with a laptop and a striped shirt. ## Objects Block `doodle-people/objects` · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/doodle-people/#objects The objects of the library: documents, calendars, sketches, bugs, switches and speech bubbles, each drawn plainly enough to name itself. They are the nouns the scenes are built from. - Ven diagram - Image: Ven diagram - Idea list - Image: Idea list - Business canvas - Image: Business canvas - Sketch blank - Image: Sketch blank - Spec - Image: Spec - Storyboard - Image: Storyboard - Personas - Image: Personas - Plan - Image: Plan - Sketch c - Image: Sketch c - Notes - Image: Notes - Calendar 1 - Image: Calendar 1 - Calendar 2 - Image: Calendar 2 - Sketch a - Image: Sketch a - Sketch b - Image: Sketch b - Laptop - Image: Laptop - Brief - Image: Brief - Light bulb - Image: Light bulb - Switch on - Image: Switch on - Switch off - Image: Switch off - Bubble question - Image: Bubble question - Bug green 1 - Image: Bug green 1 - Bug green 2 - Image: Bug green 2 - Bug orange - Image: Bug orange - Bug red - Image: Bug red - Bug yellow - Image: Bug yellow - Bubble exclamation - Image: Bubble exclamation - Ticket - Image: Ticket - **AI:** 2, Ideas. AI helped with research, sources, brainstorming or structure. I wrote every word. The tiers: https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/writing/#ai