The Role of Sketching in Design and Development
Sketching in design is as pivotal as air for the living. The importance of sketching in design is so vast because that is how product ideas are easily understood by stakeholders. It also allows potential issues to be discovered early on.
“Nice drawings!’ You don’t sketch to hear this comment from your clients but sketching in design is welcomed to make the development process less challenging. The typical process goes something like this:
- Your client explains a unique idea to you over a discovery call.
- You understand his idea well and ensure that your team gets the insights too.
- Once information is gathered, your team starts to brainstorm and plan the development procedure.
- The design process comes next and actual conceptualizing of the solution is created.
But, that is not all. There are further steps to software creation and deployment, but we will not discuss that further. We will be mainly focusing on the importance of sketching in design today.
Sketching is a Fantastic Skill
Sketching in design is understood as a significant factor for successful development. It is embraced as a strategy in which software engineers exteriorize the idea and obtain some visual clues for refinement and amendation. The importance of sketching in design is appreciated by engineering design researchers, professionals, and everyone who is involved in the design and development of products or software.
Let us take an example of an architect here. He plans and designs buildings and nd generally is quite skilled with a large role in construction. If he does not sketch, how can he jump into planning? As we see, sketching and architecture go arm in arm.
Think first. Draw second. Develop last.
Have you heard about Frank Gehry? He is a Canadian-born American architect and designer and each of his major projects begins with a sketch. If you want to be successful like him, embrace sketching in design and development.
The Role of Sketching in Engineering Design
Could Gianni Versace be a great designer without knowing how to draw? No! Can you be a graphic designer if you cannot draw? Absolutely not! Then why is sketching in design and development so important?
That is because a plan prevents many of the large pitfalls that you may experience when using design tools. To avoid terrible user experiences, embrace the importance of sketching in design and discover potential issues prior to starting the development.
How to Sketch?
First Step: Do Research
Research is the key to problem-solving. You need to have a good understanding of the problem first to come up with a great solution. By research, we mean collecting ideas on how to build software. You can prepare a design in your head and then sketch it either on paper or build a digital sketch using both desktop or web-based applications. Once you do that, you can extract several ideas quickly relating to the look and feel of the end-product.
Second Step: Begin Sketching
Do not be afraid to design a rough sketch. The beauty of sketching lies in fast, rough, and dirty sketches. So, do not worry if you are not a professional sketcher. You can easily create one using a pen and a simple sheet of paper. Worry less on design aesthetics and focus more on the rapid formulation of ideas.
Third Step: Wireframes
There is a common misconception around the two: sketches and wireframes. This misbelief needs to be addressed here. As we reviewed previously, sketches are rough and dirty drawings made using a pen and paper. But wireframes on the other hand are the refinement of the ideas formed in a sketch. It is commonly known as a blueprint of the design.
Before we conclude our talk, we would like to inform you about some tools that you can use to create tidy sketches. This set of the software will permit you to draw product sketches using digital graphics. The applications below will aid you in increasing your sketching skills:
- Fusion 360
- SketchUp
- Sketchbook
In a Nutshell
Sketching will undoubtedly remain an important step in the design and development procedure. You can either take care of the sketching, wireframing, or building mockups part yourself, or you can hire someone who will be responsible for designing UI elements, new product features, and enhancements to existing features for you.
