The Power of Paper for Sketching

This week focused on the importance of sketching interfaces, emphasizing the advantages of using paper:

• Low-cost development platform: Paper is readily available and inexpensive compared to digital design tools.
• Flexibility and speed: Sketching on paper allows for rapid iteration and exploration of ideas, often faster than using digital tools like Photoshop or Figma.
• Comfort and familiarity: Many designers find pen and paper a more comfortable and natural medium for brainstorming.

Sharpening Your Sketching Skills

The importance of practice was emphasized. Resources like UX Tools (https://uxtools.co/) were recommended. Exercises like "drawing toast" were suggested to improve basic sketching skills.

Pencils vs. Pens, Color Palettes, and Design Systems

The session discussed practical considerations like using pencils for flexibility and limiting color palettes for clarity. The value of design systems and visual starter kits for maintaining consistency across sketches was highlighted.

Why Paper? Additional Benefits

Beyond initial benefits, we explored other advantages of sketching on paper:

• Fast Iteration: Paper allows for quick exploration of multiple ideas without getting bogged down in digital tools.
• Cognitive Benefits: Paper sketching can improve information recall and user flow understanding.

Laws of UX: Designing for Cognition

The session revisited UX design laws, specifically:

• Miller's Law: The human short-term memory can only hold a limited number of items (around 7 ± 2) at a time.
• Chunking: Breaking down information into manageable pieces to improve user comprehension.

User Flows and User Testing

The importance of user flows and testing them with users was emphasized. Tools like Lucidchart (https://www.lucidchart.com/) were recommended for creating user flows.

Sketching Techniques