Sketching for UX Designers - Boost UX work with pen & paper!

This lecture is about the different keywords in the area of visual thinking

I talk about the advantages of sketching in general, then I tell you why this is an awesome skill for a UX designer.

Before we start to actually draw, I tell you what tools you will need to prepare if you want to follow along with me.

I show you how to warm up before sketching.

In this lecture I show you how to practice drawing basic shapes - lines, circles, triangles and rectangles are essential parts of the user interface sketches and storyboards!

I give you some tips, advices on how to practice your drawing skills, and how to build a habit around sketching.

This lecture is a quick introduction to user interface sketching. 

In the following lectures, I show you

- how to sketch the different elements of a user interfaces

- how to annotate your sketches

- how to create user flows and sketch transitions.

When choosing the detail level of your sketches, you need to consider two things:

- Where are you at the UX design process

- Who is the audience of your sketch

I show you how to indicate content and text in your UI sketches.

This lecture is about sketching navigation and form elements.

In this lecture I show you how to draw icons, next to practical tips, I include the theory behind it as well.

In this lecture I give you an exciting icon drawing exercise.

I talk about shading, and I tell you how to emphasize the most important parts of your sketch to direct your viewers attention.

In this lecture I give you tips on how to annotate your sketches to make them more comprehensible.

I talk about how you can connect your individual sketches to create user flows!

This lecture is about sketching transitions, user interface animations are powerful!

I give you three UI sketching exercises, and I also show you a low fidelity and a high fidelity UI sketch.

I give you some advices on how to improve your UI sketches, and how to practice UI sketching next to the ways I have already told you.

In this lecture I introduce you to the exciting world of Storyboarding!

In this lecture I show you how to draw human beings, how to represent the users inside a Storyboard.

In this lecture I show you how to draw locations.

In this lecture, we add something really human to our Storyboards: speech and thought bubbles.

Speech and thought bubbles are containers we use to express our characters’ thoughts and the things that they are saying. In this lecture, we gonna discuss other types of containers, and the ways you can apply them in your Storyboards.

In this lecture, I talk about showing process inside your Storyboards.

In this lecture we discover the texts inside your Storyboards.

In this lecture, we sketch objects and concepts for your Storyboards, and I also give you an exciting exercise.

I show you how to use color and effects inside your Storyboards.

In this lecture I create a Storyboard to show you how the different elements I showed in the previous lectures are coming together!

This lectures about the main benefits of Storybaording, and the different goals of this method.

This lecture is about the process of Storyboard-creation.

I give you some advices on how you should construct your story, and sketch your Storyboard.

I tell you how and at which points of the UX design process you can use your Storyboards really effectively.

The goal of this section is to practice and develop sketching skills by going through the different Gestalt principles. Knowing these principles well will help you design better digital products, since the Gestalt laws influence the user experience as well.

The basic law of Gestalt is simplicity. So many things are competing for our attention in our surroundings, and we have limited capacity for processing the incoming input.Therefore our mind interprets the things we see in the simplest way possible. It also means that we perceive things as a whole, not as a collection of different parts - just think about the face example.

This law states that our brain fills the missing parts to  get a complete figure, and it also creates a combination of parts to establish a whole.

The figure-ground principle states that our mind tries to separate the figure from the background. The figure is the element we focus on, and the background is the figure's surrounding. This way we can drive the users attention.

The law of proximity is very important in user interface design: it states the objects that are closer to each other are perceived as more related or connected than the objects that are not positioned near them. The elements that are placed closer are seen as parts of the same group or category, and not as individual objects.

The principle of similarity suggests that if two objects have similar characteristics, these objects are perceived more related than the ones that don't have these same qualities.There is a wide range of characteristics we can think about: it can be size, color, texture, shape, fonts, orientation, transparency, drop shadows and so on.

The law of continuation or good continuation means that the elements placed on a line or a curve are perceived as more related then the one that are not aligned in that way. The principle also suggests that our perception of shapes is continued in the implied direction, so we follow the line or the curve even beyond the last parts of the composition.

The law of enclosure or common region suggests that the objects that have a border around them are perceived as more related, or as a group. The boundaries or borders establish a closed region which can be used to highlight the relationship between certain parts of the user interface or the content. Each element that is placed inside the border is perceived as belonging together, and in the same way everything outside the given area is seen as separated from these elements.

The principle of common fate (or synchrony) is increasingly important nowadays, since UI animations are becoming more and more popular. This law states that the objects that are moving in the same direction are perceived as being more related than the elements that don't move or moving in a different direction.

This principles is also called uniform connectedness or the law of unity. Actually it has a really straightforward definition: the objects that are somehow connected visually are perceived as more related than the ones without these connections. 

The law of symmetry states that symmetrical elements are perceived as more related, and as belonging to the same unified group. Also an object that is a combination of two mirrored elements are perceived as a single object.

Another interpretation of this rule is that we tend to perceive objects as being symmetrical around a center point, so our brain separates objects symmetrical pieces. And if we see symmetrical elements next to each other, we perceive them as belonging together.

Parallelism is related to symmetry: in this case the similar lines are perceived as being more related than the objects that are not parallel. Parallelism also connected to the law of common fate, lines that seem to move or point into one direction are perceived as a group.

The rule of focal points is extremely important in UX and UI design. The interface should communicate what functions, options are the most important at a given step for the user.

The last principle we gonna discuss is the law of past experiences, which simply states that the elements are perceived based on the users' past experiences. This principle is really important significant in UX and UI design, the UI design patterns work thanks to this.

1. We gonna sketch out a onepager website for a photographer, then I gonna ask you to spot things on your sketch...

2. The second exercise type: open the websites you visit each day. Now try to spot as many Gestalt principles as you can. If you want to practice sketching user interfaces, it is also great idea to copy their structure. 

3. The third exercise is to go to a UI pattern collection website, pick a pattern, and start to identify the Gestalt principles behind that. For example think about why and how a 5-star rating mechanism work. You can also copy these patterns in order to develop your sketching skills.

4. You can create and sketch out your own Gestalt cheat-sheet, use your favorite examples!

5. You don't even need to stick with the Gestalt principles, there are many other areas in visual and UX design, create summary sketches of the things your are reading or studying about.

In this lecture, I summarize 12 benefits of sketching and visual thinking: why it is a great skill to develop for any (UX) designers.

In this lecture I talk about two things: how to work on your sketching skills, and I also give you some more advices.

Download the Sketching for UX Designers WORKBOOK to practice sketching even more :) And I also give you some tips on how to participate in the visual thinker community, and share some other additional resources with you.