Having designed interfaces of many flavours for close to two decades now, my “toolkit” has evolved quite significantly over the years. One thing that has remained consistent though is the power of sketching. Regardless of the medium, sketching has proven time and time again to be one of the most effective tools for working fast and communicating ideas. In this article, I’ll explore my journey with various methods and also introduce the latest app that I am excited to work with in more detail.
Analogue tools
I’d say that my first signature relationship with a sketchbook was when working at Skyscanner. Back then, it was a 200-person flight search comparison site. Shortly after joining, I was tasked with leading the design for our upcoming hotel’s product — in steps the sketchbook.
It would not be uncommon to see me wandering around with a dog-eared sketchbook hanging out of my jean pocket. With a trusty fine-liner pen, I could quickly sketch out an idea and begin to visualise it in the moment. No booting up laptops or looking for chargers — just pure and simple pen and paper.
These rough sketches and accompanying notes would serve as discussion starters for product managers and engineers to test for feasibility, invite early feedback and iterate on concepts. It was by far the fastest way to get an idea out of my head.
Pros
Cheap and easy — simply pull it out of your pocket and away you go…
The tactile sense and connection with a rough texture like paper help to reinforce the fact that this is a rough idea
The battery will never run out on your sketchbook — though your pen might run out of ink
Cons
Easier to lose — because it’s cheap, you may not treat it less carefully
When you need to repeat elements and patterns, it can be laborious
Harder to share with colleagues who are not co-located
Digital tools
Working on the design of iPad apps I bought my first iPad mini back in 2013. Back then it wasn’t much of a design tool, but I did buy a third-party chunky rubber-tipped pencil that got me wondering about trading in my sketchbooks.
Fast forward a few years, and I am now on a 12.9” iPad with the latest version of the Apple Pencil which does invite a far superior sketching experience. Having tested a bunch of apps, I landed somewhere between Concepts, Sketches, and Paper.
They all had their pros and cons but the one I found most interesting for full-blown exploratory work was Concepts. It was just much more powerful as a drawing tool and offered an infinite canvas, which is not something offered by Paper or Sketches.
Setting up the tooling, you could easily recreate that “sketchy” aesthetic but now in digital form. Working in TravelPerk I began to lean more heavily on the iPad as a way of being able to more easily send digital versions off to colleagues or attach them to Jira tickets.
Pros
All sketches can easily be collated in one place
Easy access to a range of drawing tools and colours without carrying around a backpack of pens and markers
Easy to reuse and rearrange elements with little effort
Cons
Reliance on products and services that have proprietary formats
The danger of getting too polished and taking more time than needed
The distraction that comes from using any sort of digital device (even with “do not disturb” turned on)
Purpose-built sketching tools
Kicking off a component exploration recently, I had my iPad to hand and wanted to take a look at what was out there. I had previously explored an app called Mockup and decided to give it another try.
What’s nice about this app is that it brings the best of sketching on the iPad with the welcome constraints and “roughness” of sketching on paper. You are offered a limited, but powerful toolset. It feels like the Goldilocks “just right” balance.
One significant boost to the creative process is that it’s easy to create new phone, desktop, or even watch frames so that you can get to sketching the contents and not the surrounding chrome. I know, it doesn’t take long to draw a rectangle representative of a screen, but that’s not what you should be focused on. This tool helps you get to the content part faster.
In addition, you can easily save and reuse pieces of UI or icons for later reuse. I’ll continue to explore this in more depth and report back. Watch this space!
Pros
Purpose-built and encourages focusing on wireframing at speed
Just enough tools to entice you over to the digital realm without being too distracting from the task at hand
An expansive set of UI elements and icons allows you to focus on the parts in-between
Cons
Still falls prey to the distractions of working on a digital device
There are some quality-of-life improvements that feel missing (like dragging to change the order of screens)
The wrap-up
In short, it’s great to see the evolution of sketching tools and the different ways in which we can capture and express ideas. With the rise of AI-generated drawing tools, it will be interesting to see how this next phase of ideation will play out.
That being said, despite all of these shiny new tools at our disposal I find there is always an attraction to that tactile feel of a sketchbook. There is a romantic element to the old sketchbooks that gather dust and lose colour. Their roughed-up edges hint at the type of life they have lived. This is something yet to be created in the digital world.
Powering this week's thoughts
Music plays such an important role when I am thinking, working, and reflecting. I also find it interesting to see what others are listening to. It's a gateway into an aspect of their personality. That's why I'd like to share, with each article, an artist or playlist that I have been listening to that week.
I know I have shared Fred Again previously, but I was fortunate enough to be given a ticket to Primavera Sound in Barcelona by my beautiful partner and was a first-hand witness to this epic scene (below). As the first beat drops on of the best songs, there’s a power surge, but the crowd keeps the vibe going. Epic!