“But I can’t draw!”

This is the third part in a series, Think More Design Less, which was originally written for non-designers at my company.

Sketching is a fantastic communication tool that lets you express ideas quickly, honestly, and freely. Most importantly, though, is that anybody can sketch — no matter your drawing ability.

Sketches never need to be beautiful.

The point of sketching isn’t to create something to be hung in a gallery and admired — it’s to explore ideas and then communicate them to others. They don’t even have to be pure drawings — I tend to annotate a lot of my sketches in case they’re illegible! Focusing too much on the visual quality of your sketches can hinder more than help.

If the point of this sketch is to communicate my fishy idea quickly, one is more successful than the other.

Why sketch?

Sketches help you generate ideas.

Rapid ideation is a technique used most frequently by designers and creatives. It’s really simple:

1. Set a time limit — less than 30 minutes.
2. Draw as many ideas as possible within that time limit. Put everything on paper — no crossing out, no hesitating.
3. At the end of the time limit, share your sketches, discuss, and move onto more refinement.

Idea generation for something to make gift-giving less painful.

Self-censoring is one of the biggest blockers to innovation. Every time you hold back saying something out loud because you ‘know’ it’s a bad idea, or won’t work, the creative process is held back! Even if it doesn’t ‘work,’ somebody else (or even you!) might later find some value in it, or it might spark other ideas. Get everything down on paper and don’t be ashamed of your ideas.

Rapid ideation is something I tend to run frequently in workshops — working alone, together — so that we can all share ideas afterwards and discuss.

Sketches allow you to explore.

If you’re not running rapid ideation, or just need some help trying to flesh out an idea, sketching is one of the best ways. It’s a pretty relaxing exercise, so allow yourself to have a coffee and just explore ideas with your pen.

For a lot of people, typing your thoughts as they come doesn’t work because you can’t type as quickly as you think. Sketching, however, is a way to keep up with your brain.

Idea exploration for displaying files.

Sketches spark discussion.

It is incredibly hard to communicate an idea using purely words, especially if your idea is about a logo, a website, a product, or anything that can be seen. People interpret things differently, even stuff that you might think is really obvious, so sketching and drawing in front of others is a really good way to make sure you’re all on the same page.

Annotating as you go or before presenting can ensure clarity, but it can also draw attention to the most important parts of your sketch.

It’s also hard to critique an idea when it’s so intangible in pure discussion. Sketches give you something to refer to, something to bounce off, and allow you to visualise all the parts together as a whole.

And when everybody in the team is in agreement about sketches, it’s so much easier to pitch it to any potential stakeholders. If you don’t have time to develop something tidier, or have no designers, sketches still communicate ideas, flow, and give everybody an idea of how you’re going to solve problems.

What next?

The language of interface sketching

While there are no hard and fast rules about how to sketch, I try to keep my sketch elements fairly consistent so that my colleagues can quickly interpret my sketches. Whatever works for you and your team = good sketching language!

Some common ways I present elements in my sketches.

Bringing your sketches to life

The quickest way to validate anything is to build a prototype and test it. Even if you aren’t a designer or a developer, you can still prototype using just your sketches and a bit of technology. Tools like POP by Marvel let you test your idea super cheaply, and they’re really easy to learn.

If you’d like to try your hand at paper prototyping, check out this guide by UXPin.

Miscellaneous tips and tricks

• Use thick markers, especially if you’re still nervous about sketching! The problem with thin materials is that you can add detail — and if you start focusing on detail, you can forget about the rapid, communicative nature of sketching. Plus, if you work on whiteboards a lot, it’s good to get used to the lack of detail.
• Trace the outline of your phone to get a better idea of scale. If you find that this helps a lot when you’re designing, you might want to invest in UX Stamps or UI Stencils.
• Make sketching fun. Sketching should be a relaxing and creative process, so anything that can make it so is a great thing to do. Sometimes that’s the #chill playlist in the background, bright colours, or doodling a bit first, so do whatever works for you.
• Don’t talk while sketching. Discussion of any kind can interrupt the flow of a good idea generation exercise, and it’s hard to return to your concentrated state.
• Don’t be afraid to annotate. If you know that a concept is hard to communicate, or it needs more explanation, there’s nothing wrong with adding some explanation text.
• Experiment! Everybody has their own sketching style, even if you don’t know yours yet. If you keep sketching, you’ll find out what works best for you.

“I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.” — Le Corbusier

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