1.3 The Sketchbook
your basic resource for recording, developing, showing and archiving ideas
The regular use of a sketchbook is perhaps the most prevalent best practice found across all design disciplines. Many designers keep a sketchbook with them at all times. They use it to record and elaborate their ideas as they come to mind, to gather ideas, notes or artifacts of interest as they see them (especially those that may inspire future ideas), to ‘doodle’ half-formed thoughts, and to share ideas with others by showing particular sketches.
The sketchbook is particularly valuable as it encourages its owners to collect and develop a multitude of ideas and choose between them, rather than to fixate on a single idea. As explained previously this process of distilling between many ideas is getting the right design, whereas the process of developing a particular idea (e.g., through iterative refinement or usability engineering) is getting the design right. The former emphasizes design that chooses between idea alternatives, while the later is the creative engineering that refines a particular idea.
Why a Sketchbook?
Real progress in developing yourself as an interaction designer will depend on you frequently and habitually sketching out your ideas and their variations, recording other people’s ideas you may see, reflecting and choosing between these ideas, and then further developing those ideas that seem promising. The sketchbook records all these. Carrying the sketchbook with you at all times will help you incorporate sketching and reflection into your daily routines.
Uses of a Sketchbook
Sketchbooks are useful in many ways. It is a place where you should:
• Jot down and annotate your own initial ideas – and there is no such thing as a bad idea!
• Explore and refine ideas both in the large and in the small.
• Develop variations, alternatives and details.
• Refer back to your ideas and reflect on how your thought processes have changed over time.
• Record other good ideas you see elsewhere, e.g., in other systems, in your readings, and in your colleagues’ work.
• Collect existing materials (e.g., pictures from magazines, screen snapshots) and tape them into the sketchbook.
• Develop your skills, your accuracy and your confidence in sketching out your ideas through regular use.
• Be ready to explain them. Sketches do not have to be pretty, beautiful, or even immediately understandable by others. However, you should be able to explain your sketches and ideas when anyone asks about them.
• Use it as an archive. Designers often keep their filled-in sketchbooks for years. You never know when an ‘old’ idea will come in handy.
Best Practices
• Always carry your sketchbook with you everywhere (a second small sketchbook is helpful). Jot down ideas as you think about them.
• Sketch frequently, e.g., at least several times a day.
• Fill pages with a series of related drawings about a design idea, or with a single well-composed design idea.
• Consider alternatives (getting the right design). A series of sketches related to the same interaction problem might explore different aspects of the interface. These could include different interface representations, different interaction details, different screens, different levels of details, different contexts of use, and so on. Each page can become a series of studies that will help you develop and reflect on the many ideas you will have.
• Consider details (getting the design right). Follow through on a sketch that captures the essence of a design with more detailed sketches that elaborate on its nuances.
• Annotate drawings appropriately, including information such as descriptions for ideas that you cannot draw out well; textual addendum; sources of your ideas (e.g., books, magazines, collaborators, classmates), creation date, and any other relevant information.
• Do not erase ideas because they are messy or because you no longer like them. Your sketchbook is a record of all your developing ideas, good and bad, not just of your final work.
• The sketchbook is for design only – do not use it for other things just because you do not have any paper.
Properties of Good Sketchbooks
There are myriads of sketchbooks available, most at reasonable cost. While the choice of sketchbook is personal, there are some properties that make some sketchbook preferable to others.
The paper style (grid, textured, plain) is very much a personal preference. As you use your sketchbook, you will discover what paper style works best for you.
Buy a nice sketchbook so you can take pride in it. Many designers consider the sketchbook the ‘badge’ of their profession! Hard covers are far more durable than soft covers, but are somewhat thicker and heavier. Sketchbooks come in either coiled or sewn bound and there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Pages can rip out of cheaper coil bindings. However, coil bindings will let you completely fold over your sketch book so that only one page is in view, which is handy when space is tight. A sewn bound book is more durable, but most do not let yet you fold it over.
Sketchbooks also come in various sizes. 8½″ × 11″ or 9″ × 12″ are typical, and well- suited for most sketches you may make. However, a large sketchbook is of little use to you if you don’t have it with you at all times. Thus you may want to keep several sketchbooks of different sizes: a larger one to keep in your pack or briefcase, and a smaller one that fits in your handbag or pocket. Paper thickness also affects portability. Better sketchbooks have thicker paper (which is nicer to draw on), but adds bulk. If you are uncertain about these trade-offs, the key to your choice is to choose at least one sketchbook with a form factor that guarantees you will always have it with you.
Pencils come in different darkness, and felt pens come in different nib thickness. Both are often purchasable as a set. Having a set available can help you emphasize or mute different parts of your drawing, perhaps to show what parts of your idea are more certain versus those that are more speculative.
Drawing Materials
A sketchbook is of little use without something you can draw with. While there are many drawing tools available, you should – at the very least – always carry a pencil or two with you. Pencil leads vary considerably, with 3B being the most popular (see sidebar). Pens should be avoided unless you are practiced with them: they don’t allow you to vary the thickness or blackness of your sketching marks. Other drawing tools can help you add richness and accuracy to your sketches: erasers, pencil sets, colored pencils, markers, paints, charcoal, rulers, compasses, French curves, and so on. Glue and tape will let you paste in material you generated or gathered elsewhere. These are all less portable, but you can always keep them at your normal place of work.
However, remember that a sketch is primarily about recording and elaborating an idea – you can easily get carried away with making a sketch too pretty or accurate. This is why the pencil is your most important sketching tool. Think about keeping a few basic tools with you at all times, and a richer collection of tools in your usual work space. Experiment! Try different tools and see how they influence your idea sketches.
You Now Know
A sketchbook is a designer’s most fundamental tool. Through it, you can capture and elaborate ideas as they come to you, and review and reflect on them later. Yet a sketchbook can only help you if you carry it with you, and get in the habit of using it. Make it one of your ‘best practices’.