Hmm... I decide what to do depending on many things. It's always a combination of few factors..
Am I talking to myself, exploring some ideas at a high level with no worries of showing / communicating to anyone else about it? In that case I sketch, because it's a good way to start. Am I working in a group and co-creating? Sketching on whiteboards or big A2 sheets pinned on boards is good. Take digital copies of the same and distribute to everyone afterwards with a summary of the discussion. Am I collaborating remotely with someone? Realtime - discuss on skype, sketch, show on camera or send a scan or sketch on screen and share. Not realtime - sketch with some notes / explanatory post-its, take a photo and send by mail with a summary of your thoughts. Do I need to show this to someone for approval? If it's a designer - no worries, sketch. If it's a client (marketing / technical) - does he know my way of working / have I worked with the client before? / does the client side contact need to communicate or share it with others for approval or anything? how much time do I have? In my experience, sending Visio wireframes to clients helps since they identify it as a progress from the 'sketching stage' towards a more finished product. Also, it becomes easier for them to communicate amongst themselves. Sometimes you send sketches and wait till eternity for a response and then you figure out that they took it just as a 'status update' of a process begun and were waiting for 'more work'. If you are presenting to a client, then it's best to take print outs of wireframes and sketch on it while discussing with them; it pays to convert client presentations into small workshops. How much time do I have or the client have? What are the dependencies; are the developers / engineers / product designers / vendors waiting for me to sync their planning? What is my fluency with the tools I am using / how fast am I in converting a change request into an active dialogue with these tools? Where am I right now? (the good thing about sketching is that you can do it anytime, anywhere in any circumstances... well, almost any circumstances). Am I multi-tasking on different projects that are at different phases of development? This is an interesting discussion. What is a good analogy for sketching? Sketching for a designer is like scribbling thoughts for a writer lets say... however, some prefer typing straight on typewriters; that ways they write with some more seriousness and focus. With computers, the backspace key is a bitch - it leaves you typing aimlessly sometimes (at least in my case) since you know correcting it isn't the same as putting white ink on something... What about cooking? You can't have low-fidelity versions of what you are cooking; you just have to do it right... Cheers, Mayur Karnik On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 1:44 PM, Alan Salmoni <[email protected]> wrote: > Jeremy: I've had something similar which I guess pointed to a failure > in communication. > > "It looks like it was sketched up in 15 minutes!" said the > skeptical DBA. > > > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Posted from the new ixda.org > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48924 > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
