Why you are not good at sketching
On 26th April, I was invited to conduct a workshop at UX Alive in Istanbul. The topic of the workshop — ‘Sketching to Improve your UX Design Workflow’. Through the workshop I aimed to equip the participants with sketching skills they could adopt in their UX Design practice which would help them work more quickly and more efficiently.
Over the course of the 3 hour workshop, I noticed some mistakes being made by participants which could be detrimental to their objective of improving upon their sketching.
1.Not drawing big enough
Through the workshop we did exercises which involved sketching mobile interfaces. A mobile interface can be easily drawn in 1:1 size on an A4 sheet of paper. However, I saw a lot of tiny thumbnail-y sketches.
Drawing too small is an indication of low sketching confidence and continuing to draw small will only reinforce that. Drawing interfaces in 1:1 sizes as far as possible also makes them more useful to you, simply because they are a more accurate representation of the interface you are designing.
2.Weak lines
When sketching, sketch like you really mean it! Shaky, faint, half-hearted lines are again indicative of low confidence and indecisiveness. If you are not even committing to the creation of your sketch, there is very low likelihood that you are going to show this sketch to another person or utilize it further in your UX design process.
So draw your lines dark and with intent. Of course if you haven’t been sketching in a long long while, it will be helpful to just practice drawing straight horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines on a blank piece of paper. Practicing lines will help you become quicker and more accurate with your sketching.
3. ‘Precious-ness’
Sketching is a rough and tumble activity, it is where you can get your hands dirty and your face smeared. So too much of ‘carefulness’ at this point is counter-productive. If you are practicing on an expensive/ ‘precious’ sketchbook with a fancy pen, please downgrade to regular printer paper and a ballpoint. The fear of ruining a perfect notebook can sometimes cause sketching — paralysis.
At the same time, you shouldn’t be overtly attached to your sketch either. Sketches are always a work in progress, meant to be edited, re-worked and discarded. Think of sketching as visual brainstorming, quantity trumps quality.
To conclude, you can improve your sketching in the same way you would improve your swimming -
- Do more of it
- Do it like you mean it (You wouldn’t do a half-hearted front stroke, then why a half-hearted shaky line)
- Don’t be afraid of messing things up
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