Live data from Hacker News

Early sketches from web designers

layervault.tumblr.com

21–24 of 24 posts

Re: Early sketches from web designers

#21
post #8

Very nice sketches. But I want to point out that if you don't sketch you shouldn't feel like you're "doing it wrong". Sketching is not a required step. Starting straight in Photoshop (or even in the browser) are both valid methods too.

Agreed.

I'm a web designer by trade, and I almost always start on paper. Often, after starting on paper and moving to Photoshop, I come back to paper to iterate on the design before going back to Photoshop again.

I find it the quickest and easiest way to get my ideas out. I also find it a good way to weed out the bad ideas before developing them too far.

Sketching for ideation was drilled into me at Uni (Industrial Design, I think we had a class dedicated to it actually) so I assume that plays a part, but I work with and am close friends with a number of other designers of varying academic history, and their creative processes vary wildly.

You're definitely not "doing it wrong" if you don't start on paper, but it's probably worth giving it a shot as it's a reasonably low overhead to integrate into your process.

Re: Early sketches from web designers

#23
post #12

I don't think sketching is only useful for designers. Before I solve complex coding problems I usually have a block where I can scribbled and sketch solutions. This method makes it much easier to brainstorm and think than using something rigid like a text editor (at least for me).

I used to draw out little graphs representing data and more exotic structures, but I found that trying to focus on the paper would ruin my train of thought. I try to visualize that stuff in my head now, and it's gotten easier with practice.

It's not intentional, but it seems like my method has turned into "stare at a wall for an hour, and then write function prototypes."

Post reply on HN