The power in paper sketching is the sketch’s ephemerality and how they feel less “real” than anything we create quickly on a computer. Susan Kare, the designer of the icons for the Macintosh’s graphical user interface, used graph paper to design her initial ideas for the iconic early pixel art. Paper sketching can feel like something solely associated with visual art or graphic design (for instance, the legendary logo designer Saul Bass is well known for his advocacy of drawing), but even the earliest ideas for computer interfaces started with paper. Grab a piece of paper and a pen, and let’s get started! Why To Start With PaperĪs we’re always on a computer (and I think most of us are, nowadays), sometimes it doesn’t even occur to us to step away and try designing something off-screen. Everyone needs to be a “designer” from time to time from creating a quick personal homepage, a landing page for a new open-source project, or creating nice-looking slides for their next presentation. This process is recommended even if we aren’t designing something big or in the capacity of a designer.
It took years of muddling through uninspiring concepts and feeling like I wasn’t pushing my limits before I realized how powerful idea generation via quick physical sketches could be. Sketching by hand can feel unfamiliar and uncomfortable to those who don’t feel artistically inclined, but the flexibility of hand-sketches combined with our imagination means we can work through more ideas and form a better design direction faster than we could than if we started with a more concrete, computer-based solution.Īdmittedly, I struggle with it myself at times while I spent my childhood with a sketchbook perpetually in my hand and graduated university with an Arts degree, the paper sketchbook was briefly forgotten when I started my web design career.
These have their place, but I would recommend stepping back and starting with the humble pen and paper.
SKETCH IDEAS NATURE SOFTWARE
wireframing software like Balsamiq, or design tools like Photoshop or Figma. Need to design something? It can be tempting to start with a computer-based tool, e.g. Analog drawing can unleash your imagination and allow you to focus on what’s most important at the start: the ideas. When designing for digital spaces, it’s natural to default to digital mockup tools, but doing so cuts out a world of possibilities.
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