These product sketches by Ki-chol Nam show an evolution of ideas across the page. They present complete
and incomplete thoughts, details, suggestions, and notation as well as more-resolved sketches. Note that the
drawings flow across the page space, use limited amounts of color and media, and are visually engaging.
Calling out key information
and ideas in the context of a
larger drawing can be done in
a number of ways. One method
is to use scale to establish a
hierarchy in communication to
differentiate dominant or essential images from subordinate
or supportive ones. Another
approach is to increase fidelity or resolution of key ideas by
using tighter technical control
of line, tone, and color. While
establishing a hierarchy is necessary to enhance readability and
communication, combining too
many levels of differentiation
(enhanced line work, excessive
color, etc.) may yield an overworked or overly complex sketch.
C o mposing drawings
a nd layouts
G enerating a series of quick thumbnails can help
you to plan various layouts and configurations
for screen-based and print design. Key elements
c an be simplified to rectangles, and supporting
text reduced to lines to promote expediency.
These thumbnails can then be translated into
more-refined drawings or used as a basis to
transition into digital sketching and wire frames.
(Thumbnail sketches by Mark Baskinger;
screen concepts by William Bardel.)
A Quick and Employable
Strategy: Moving from Words
to Pictures, or from Written
Narratives to Visual Narratives
Interaction designers practicing
in service design and design for
user experience come from a
variety of backgrounds and educational training. In conducting
design drawing and sketching
workshops in a variety of conference and business contexts, I’ve
learned that many interaction
designers express their ideas
only through written narratives,
wire frames (for screen development), and very simplistic
doodles. Sketching and visualization are often separated as
the work for visual designers or
industrial designers, who now
find themselves in the world of
interaction design because they
tend to possess a better skill set
for communicating concepts in
visual form. Many of the interaction designers I’ve met express
frustration for this apparent
divide and believe that if they
had these visualization skills,
