Internet User Experience 2010
Program > Schedule > Presentations
1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m., July 27, 2010
Sketching for UXD: Basic Shapes (P29)
Wendi Strang-FrostUser Experience Designer, Ithaka
There has been a lot of buzz on the web recently about adding sketching to the user experience design toolbox, from drawing meeting notes, to presenting hand-drawn wireframes to stakeholders and development teams as final deliverables. And while you can find a lot of information about the benefits of sketched deliverables on Google, there's precious little to be found online about how to actually draw. After all, we don't need to express every nuance of a still life or the human form, which are the topics of most drawing tutorials. We, as UXD professionals, need to be able to quickly and confidently illustrate our ideas and share them with our colleagues.
So, how does one not naturally inclined to drawing start leveraging this exciting new deliverable? My Sketching for UXD Workshop will set the novice on the right path by 1) helping them believe they can draw, 2) showing them how to experiment with materials and techniques, and 3) practicing those techniques to gain confidence.
Sketching for UXD Workshop starts with a beginning exercise to express baseline skills. In this exercise, participants will fold an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper in half twice to make for quadrants. They will fill the quadrants with vertical lines, horizontal lines, circles, and squares, respectively, in any way they like. This exercise will be put aside for comparison at the end of the workshop.
Next, I will walk participants through an exercise for each type of line and shape and have them experiment with drawing quickly and slowly and in what order lines and shapes can be constructed. Participants will then pick the technique they like best and fill the rest of their paper with that technique. These exercises allow participants to get used to paper and marker and experiment with how they draw, as well as give them the time to practice.
Once the line and shape exercises are done, participants will repeat the beginning exercise and compare it to the drawing they did earlier. Most, if not all, participants will be able to see an improvement from their first to second page of drawings.
I will end the workshop by explaining to the participants why the difference occurred. There are three practices for sketching with confidence: 1) overcoming self doubt and being willing to try, 2) experimenting with materials and techniques to find out what works best, and 3) practicing, practicing, practicing!
If participants can draw lines, circles and squares with confidence, they will be able to successfully communicate their ideas visually whether they're taking notes at a kickoff meeting or working on wireframes for presentations.
Take-aways include a Sharpie® marker and an eight page minicomic outlining the exercises in the workshop.
About the Speaker
Wendi Strang-Frost is a user experience designer at Ithaka. She is interested in leveraging comics and story boards as deliverables in an agile development environment and how visual communication can lead to better application design. She has over 20 years of experience as an artist, illustrator, and designer. She has been practicing user experience design for the last five years.
Before entering the UXD field, Wendi spent time as a professional comic book artist, illustrator, and graphic designer. She has a B.F.A. from the University of Michigan's School of Art.
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