• Amy McGuinness
• 07 Jan 2011
• 1 Comment

Maybe it’s just me but there is nothing more satisfying then a fresh piece of paper and a brand new Sharpie. There’s something very liberating about being able to to get down ideas without being too bound to the final outcome.

As designers we can often constrict ourselves by only sharing final polished reports and wireframes. Sketching helps to work through ideas and possible constraints in a quick and collaborative way.

I recently worked on a project in which sketching proved to be a fundamental tool for idea generation, problem solving and creating buy-in both internally and externally.

Here are three different ways which we used sketches to drive the design process.

1) Ideation

Sketching out initial ideas

At the beginning of the project we carried out a very broad visioning exercise. We mapped out different user journeys for the various areas of a website and then sketched potential functionality for each stage. We didn’t constrain ourselves by thinking too much about the practicality – our aim here was to sketch ideas for the best possible user experience based on our research findings. At this stage the more “out there” the better.

As a few of us were working on the project we ended up with a pool of ideas which we could evaluate together, dismissing ones which wouldn’t work so well and pulling out the gems we could develop further.

We then worked up these ideas in more sketches and shared these with the client. The outcomes were:

• A set of requirements we could take forward and incorporate into the high fidelity
  wireframes
• Buy-in from the client
• A beautiful wall of sketches

2) Problem solving

Sketching initial ideas

Further into the project, when we had produced a set of wireframes, we came to a point where there were a number of ways we could move forward with one of the wireframes. This decision would effect the functionality of the page. There were different advocates for each way both amongst ourselves and from the client.

In the end we sketched out the possible routes. Through these sketches we were able to find a clear way forward which we all agreed with.

3) Persuasion

Throughout all stages of the design process client buy-in is essential. By using sketches we were able to communicate our ideas quickly. This was especially true at the end of the project when a stakeholder decision threatened to cause dramatic change throughout all of the wireframes. We were able to sketch out all the possible scenarios, presenting a case for what we considered to be the best outcome for the user. In this example the humble sketch was able to secure sign-off from the client and allowed us to make amends which all parties were happy with.