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Sketching Fundamentals

Rachel Glaves
Experience Designer
Adaptive Path
Types of (Design) Sketches

Diagrams & Symbols


relationships
visual bullet points

Storyboards
narrative
experience
context

Interactions
information
interface structure
flow
Elements of Effective Sketching

See Understand Talk


It’s not about being “bad” or “good”, it’s about...

Can you see it?


Can you understand it?
What today looks like
Some examples...
Some examples...
Warm up!
ACTIVITY
PracticingONE:
Lines & Rectangles

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Fill the page with overlapping rectangles

2. Pass to your neighbor

3. Outline 3-4 rectangles with the big sharpie

4. Pass to your neighbor

5. Shade in 3-4 rectangles with the gray


marker
ACTIVITY ONE:
Brainstorming

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Draw a template of 6 rectangles

2. Think of a challenge you’re facing in a project


right now. Fill the rectangles with 6 ideas for
how to solve that challenge.

3. Add labels, line weight and shading


ACTIVITY ONE: | demo sketch
Brainstorming
Helpful Sketching Patterns

Callouts
Header Can show alerts, Drop Shadows
help, guidance or Communicate depth and
sketch annotations bring attention to
Tab callouts or popup boxes

Filler text
Pop-up Calendar
Module

User
Picture Page curl
Arrows
Photo Larger ones can
communicate weight,
or act as labels
Video Mouse Cursor
Indicates a rollover state

Side-scrolling Module
Flows
Telling a story
Exploring Flow | demo sketch
Telling a story

Making Comics by Scott McCloud


ACTIVITY
ExploringONE:
Flow

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Draw a template of 3 rectangles

2. Choose one idea from the previous


brainstorming activity

3. Decide if your idea fits first, middle or last

4. Draw the flow:


How do you get from one screen
to the next?

6. Add labels, line weight


and shading
People!
Some examples...
Some examples...
ACTIVITY
PracticingONE:
People

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Grab an earlier drawing with some space


in the corner

2. Add some people:


What are they feeling? What are they doing?
Ways to Draw People
Hands!
Ways to Draw Hands
Keep it simple

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pepperlime/2603598952/
Motion!
ACTIVITY
PracticingONE:
Motion

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Imagine a motion or animation within an


interface

2. Draw it using one or more of our 4 techniques

3. Can your group guess what motion you


intended?
Ways to Draw Motion

Motion Lines

Arrows

Wiggle Lines

Ghosting
Motion

Sketching: Drawing Techniques for Product Designers by Roselien Stuer and Koos Eissen : http://sketching.nl/
Motion

Sketching: Drawing Techniques for Product Designers by Roselien Stuer and Koos Eissen : http://sketching.nl/
Motion

http://www.google.com/patents?id=mM5dAAAAEBAJ&dq=1853567
Depth!
Depth
Example | Perspective

Essential Elements by Matt Tweed


Ways to Draw Depth

Shadows
Reflection
Overlap & Size

Perspective
Layouts!
Tell the story

Place + Person Backdrop Butterfly Flows

Semi-circle Diagonal Yours!


Layout | An example
ACTIVITY
Putting it ONE:
all together

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Choose a layout (or think of a different one!)

2. Choose one technique we learned earlier:


People, Hands, Motion, Depth

3. Choose a sketch from earlier

4. Put them all together:


re-interpret the sketch using layout and
technique
30 Minutes

5. Share what we learned


15 Minutes
Thank you!

Rachel Glaves
glaves@adaptivepath.com
More Examples
Example | Movie Storyboards

Arrows, labels and perspective direct the camera

http://www.myamericanartist.com/2008/05/coen-brothers-m.html
Example | Perspective

A more detailed drawing of planes in perspective

Sketching: Drawing Techniques for Product Designers by Roselien Stuer and Koos Eissen : http://sketching.nl/
Example | Color

Drawing for Designers by Alan Pipes, p. 66


Example | Color and Layout

Sketching: Drawing Techniques for Product Designers by Roselien Stuer and Koos Eissen : http://sketching.nl/
Example | Layout - semi-circle

From Word to Image: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process by Marcie Begleiter, p. 28

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