A Visual Introduction To Azure Fundamentals
This is a summary of an article that I just published in A Cloud Guru which goes into more details on the choice of the "truck" (delivery) metaphor and resources to prep for AZ-900. Don't forget to check that out!
Setting The Stage
The start of a new year is great to kickstart learning resolutions - and aiming for certification (like AZ-900) is a great goal to have!! But sticking to that resolution requires a study plan (for accountability) and study resources (that suit your learning style). Read the A Cloud Guru article for some thoughts on how you can set yourself up for success, including links to communities and study guides that can help.
Today though I want to focus on the learning styles we adopt - and in particular, on our visual learning ability. 65% of us are visual learners -- which means we absorb information ("see the big picture") more quickly from images than from text, and can make connections more quickly to relevant ideas ("connect the dots") by detecting or reinforcing patterns that we are innately familiar with.
In reality, we all learn by mixing several styles - read/write (articles), kinesthetic (tutorials), auditory (lectures) and visual (imagery) -- so as you study for certification, it's worth exploring different resources to see which ones give you the best approach to not just understanding the topic, but retaining that knowledge and recalling it effectively later.
Azure Fundamentals: A Sketchnote!
In 2021, I started the VisualAzure project, and its accompanying Cloud Skills: Sketchnotes repository, in an effort to create useful learning resources for visual learners that could complement relevant Microsoft Docs and Microsoft Learn content. My first target -- the Azure Fundamentals learning paths and AZ-900.
Here is the sketchnote visualizing the Introduction To Azure Fundamentals unit of the common module that anchors all six learning paths. The sketchnote uses two key visual storytelling tactics:
- A visual vocabulary -- so you can quickly scan the sheet at a glance, spot various "sections" and navigate the information "flow" using visual cues like icons, arrows and banners.
- A visual metaphor -- in this case, the definition of cloud computing as "the delivery of computing services over the internet" inspired me to use a transport (delivery truck) metaphor, and use related analogies to explain other concepts tied to cloud computing.
I hope you find this not just interesting, but also informative and useful, for your Azure learning and certification journeys. I encourage you to check out these resources to learn more:
- Read this accompanying article at A Cloud Guru! to dive into metaphor and analogies.
- Check out the relevant MS Learn unit/module and see if this helps your understanding.
- Download a higher-quality image from this site, review it after a few weeks to test your recall.
Last but not least - if you have feedback for improving these sketchnotes, or want to request one for a specific Microsoft Learn (module) or Docs (topic) - leave me a request or share your comments via this Discussion Forum! And if you found this useful and are a Redditor, I'd love an upvote 😊
Happy learning!