This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Sketching many concepts
Another reason that designers love sketching is because it’s fast and cheap. With nothing more than a pencil and some paper, you can sketch many concepts of one Solution Idea. This kind of exercise is called “generative” because the goal is to generate a lot of different possibilities.
For example, if your Challenge is:
Make biking more luxurious for bald people
And your Solution Idea is:
Design a helmet that is safe and comfortable for those who are hairless
You could sketch three different concepts for a helmet, like:
- One with a sun-resistant screen
- One with a built-in wig
- One with slip-resistant rubber
Or you could sketch three different designs for one concept, such as three mullet styles for the built-in wig concept. Maybe you just concentrate on the design of the clasp for a while.
Sketching is collaborative. You can compare your sketches with those of others, or start a sketch and then pass it to someone else who adds to it. She may come up with an entirely different interpretation of where you were going!
Read the following case study and try your hand at creating multiple sketches.
Just Draw the Line
You say you can’t draw? That stops a lot of people. Someone may think he’ll be judged on his shaky lines, or may feel embarrassed when someone else thinks his cat is a horse.
Your drawing doesn’t have to be perfect to do what it needs to do: represent an idea in a visual way. A simple smiley face is recognizable as a face. A stick figure represents a person. These are just circles, dots, and lines, but they’re a very powerful form of shorthand.
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You don’t even have to represent something well enough to stand on its own. A sketch can help you explain concepts to others in person.