for yourself through observation and note taking. The activity of drawing can occur almost anywhere but can be most effective in particular settings. Most designers actively keep sketchbooks or journals to record ideas and thoughts that can be brought back to the studio to build upon. These sketchbooks serve a variety of functions, but most important, they serve as a personal repository of ideas to communicate back to the designer. Collecting ideas in a sketchbook can incorporate digital photography combined with hand drawing and note taking to record ideas and observations. The key with most sketching and drawing is to do it directly in the context in which design implementation would occur. In these settings, your ideas can be inspired by the activities, events, objects, people, and spaces that may have direct implication on the designed artifact or system.

Drawings should not be cherished, nor should they be easily discarded. The reality is that a drawing marks a particular idea in time and represents the viewpoint of the author. Sharing and presenting ideas through drawing in a more formal setting can be very effective, especially if the drawings are seen as negotiable ideas that invite others into the conversation to ask questions and share their ideas as well. Too often are drawings viewed as final artifacts, where in the mind of the author they should be protected (in a frame, perhaps). This tendency can stifle a creative process by bringing finality or concreteness to the presentation of the idea.

Reflecting on your work is key for many reasons. This implies

getting some distance and time between you and the work so that you can look at it with a renewed perspective. Regular pinups and sketchbook reviews can be very enlightening. First, regularly going back through your work may reveal compe-tencies or weaknesses in your approach to design drawing. Second, you may notice patterns or commonalities in your work that may indicate an emerging style or vernacular. Since drawing is like handwriting, you can identify the author by his or her sketches. Having a celebrated style in a particular media is not as important as developing a consistent approach to drawing. Competency in drawing your ideas generally reveals consistency in drawing forms, structuring ideas, and effectiveness in communication.

 

Drawing What You Really Mean: Constructing Stories Through Narrative Sketching Using visual methods to communicate ideas entails creating a substructure of nonverbal communication. Too often designers make hasty, unrefined drawings that must be laboriously overexplained to colleagues and clients. The very premise of design drawing is to convey thinking, to tell a story to someone else. Therefore, as a visual “story,” a sketch must sequentially reveal information across the page in an orderly and scripted fashion. A narrative substructure built into the organization, hierarchy, and composition of the piece will enable the nonverbal story to unfold. Narratives, which provide accounts for telling the story of events, experiences, and ideas, offer concrete touch points

for viewers with a sequential format divided into three distinct parts—beginning (to invite the viewer in), middle (to engage the viewer), and end (to provide closure). The viewer should immediately recognize a starting point, a main body of information, and an ending point to provide a comprehensive visual discourse of the concept. Regardless of the particular emphasis, drawn images somehow yield faster access to an idea than words. This, of course, is assuming that the sketch or drawing is clearly organized and communicates well. Visual narratives can take many forms—from a page of loose sketches around a common theme to a highly structured and organized matrix. For interaction designers, visual narratives also include aspects of storyboarding and diagramming.

Within each narrative sketch, there may also be elements given importance through increased size, enhanced color, or fidelity. In storyboards that read sequentially from beginning to end, there is clear termination. However, in loosely

Media is variable. A ballpoint pen, no. 2 pencil, or a nylon tip pen are all valid, but each influences the formal qualities of drawings. Try different implements to see which ones feel best in your hand and enable you to draw clean, dark lines. The size of the tip should relate to the scale of your drawing; avoid using broad-tip markers on Post-it-size paper for very small drawings.