king talk

For the better part of this year I worked on installation projects like Streamflow and Holodeck. But in the last couple of weeks I finally had a classic interface project on my desk again.

This also meant that I got the chance to do some interface sketches again; something I almost forgot could be fun. Here are a few things (re)discovered and found interesting.

The Purpose of Sketching

The only reason why I do sketches (and not start directly with, say, wireframes) is to organize my thoughts. When I think about an interface, I always see a few details very clearly in front of me while the big picture is still blurry. Sketching allows me to organize my thoughts, combine them and create new stuff based on older drawings.

Use a Pen you Like

Everyone has a different style when it comes to bringing thoughts to paper and the pen should support that style. I personally need a rather thick pen for drawing and settled with an Edding 1300 felt marker. It is thin enough to write annotations but also thick enough to force me to ignore details in the beginning.

(Paper) Size Matters

I sketch on A3 paper. It is still managable in its size, yet large enough to accomodate a whole group of sketches. I like to draw interesting details next to the basic layout so that I get a clearer idea of the whole composition.

Start Tiny

My sketches grow as my idea of the interface becomes clearer. While the first sketch might be just 5 by 5 centimeters, the last one might fill a whole A3 sheet.

The size of the initial sketches also depends on the pen I use.
The thinner the pen, the tinyer the first sketches should be. This keeps me from trying to figure out every detail in the first sketch and thereby also reduces the fear of doing things wrong.

How do you Sketch?

Do you use similar techniques for sketching or are they completely different? Let me know in the comments!

Today I stumbled upon an entry at UX-Blog which reported about a review of the upcoming book of Steve Johnson. It‘s about the process of innovation and how people and companies can create a process for innovation. He says, that innovation isn‘t one mysterious thing popping out of nowhere. Every innovation is a sequence of small novel steps with many people involved. There isn‘t a lonely creator having the genious idea. Real innovation happens when different visions come to life, collide and result in a bigger breakthrough. The medium internet has tons of information and offers you a big network of innovative thinkers and makers (though, it also can be very distractive). If you are able to connect the advantages of various media (like books, web, movies, etc.)  you provide a basis for innovation.

One last note: Besides the fact that Steve Johnson is a great thinker, the sketching style of his videos is really enjoyable.

The freeware »Mightier« is an independent puzzle action game developed by Lucas Pope and Keiko Ishizaka and was one of the finalists of this years 11th Independet Games Festival (San Francisco/CA). Play as the »Engineer« and the »Actionaut« to solve puzzles and collect items in each sector. First you have to print so called »puzzle« from within Mightier using a color printer. You have to solve the puzzle by drawing on the page with a dark pencil or marker. Scan the puzzle into the game using an attached web camera. A high-powered space laser carves the solution and the Actionaut is dropped onto the surface, which you have drawn before. Now it´s up to you. Take control of the Actionaut and collect all the »Datagons« in each sector. I think it´s quite fun to play otherwise the detour of the drawing via the web cam is quite tricky.

The way of converting the 2D images into 3D models reminds me of the »Teddy project« (1999) by Takeo Igarashi, a sketching interface for 3D freeform design. You can draw and configure your 2D sketch in space. If you test it online, you will notice that the interaction is very clumsy. The 3D library of Teddy is Open Source.

via Schröder+Wendt