How to Sketch Interactions

A talk by Jonas Lowgren at Stockholm University in 2004 In interaction design as in any design discipline, sketching serves several purposes. It is a way to think. Ideas develop and grow in the conversation between eye and hand. Sketching is not merely a matter of documenting images that are already complete in the mind's eye. Thinking occurs, quite literally, in the manual actions involved in creating the sketch. It is a way to communicate. Design ideas are made available for others' inspection, appropriation, criticism and development. It is a way to persuade. Other stakeholders in the design process may be convinced of the value of a design idea through sketches. There are, of course, many requirements that could be posed on sketching techniques. Here, I focus on the demands that sketching techniques be expressive (to explore the envisioned use situation in some detail), sketchy (to reflect the tentative nature of the ideas), and versatile (to handle a wide range of use situations including mobile use in physically demanding environments, for instance). Kinds of Sketches Pencil and Paper Sketches Storyboarding Video Prototyping Pitch Movies Animated User Sketches Interactive Prototypes More......