Last week at the Lean UX Residency, we hosted the awesome Rachel Glaves: UX practitioner, Interaction Designer and Sketching Goddess. She introduced a handful of simple techniques that took our lean startup sketching skills to new heights.
Rachel started us out by covering key concepts for using sketching as a way to clearly communicate ideas and interactions.
Why do we sketch?
- To generate new ideas: A quick way to get a lot of ideas out into the world
- To figure out how an idea works: See context, interactions & variables
- To communicate ideas to other people: Present & talk about ideas that aren’t final yet
She also gave the group a Neuroscience Bonus: Using the paper as a thought-holding area: Our prefrontal cortex can only hold a certain number of ideas at the same time. When we use paper, we free up valuable brainpower for comparing, prioritizing & deciding. (If you’re a fellow neuroscience geek, you’ll love Your Brain At Work by David Rock.)
In fact, some of the info was so fabulous we wanted it as a handout…which we’re happy to share for your downloading pleasure (thanks, Rachel!)
{ Sketching for Lean UX – Handout }
As a final activity, she assigned a set of constraints and each of us used our newly-acquired skills to sketch out an interface. With only 10 minutes, it was rapid-fire sketching for sure. Then we stuck them all up on the wall for a review.
It was fascinating to see the different challenges that people addressed, and it was an eye-opener to pinpoint the simple touches that transform a sketch from a rough set of lines into a fully communicative sketch.
More about Rachel
Rachel Glaves is an interaction designer, UX practitioner and visual communicator based in Seattle, WA. Rachel has worked as a consultant to organizations big and small, early-stage and enterprise. She’s passionate about creating products that deliver great user experiences. And she’s one hell of a sketcher. You can follow her on twitter -> @glaves.