I love to sketch and want the world to harness the power of sketching to ideate, iterate, and communicate, Ask Me Anything!

Comments

[Corey Johnson]

A few questions:

What tools do you tend to use for sketching paper prototypes?

I personally like the feeling of hand-drawing my paper prototypes, but I always find it takes a long time, and was curious if you have any tricks to speed things up?

Where do you tend to look for inspiration when sketching out icons or specific elements on a screen?

[Rizwan⚡️]

Hi Corey,
I’ve always used copier paper and a pencil to sketch my prototypes. A little bit of planning at the beginning goes a long way in creating the various screens/states/views/elements.

Some things to consider:

• Are there repeatable elements you can sketch once and duplicate by photocopying to save time?
• Use quality (3M) Post-it notes to easily change/update labels or move things around. You’ll be moving them around quite a bit so buy the good ones.
• Experiment with a digital tool such as POP app by Marvel or Invision if you are doing remote prototype testing.

Suggested supplies:

• Copier paper
• Pencils (2B and 4B)
• Eraser
• Sharpies (Various widths)
• Scissors
• X-acto knife
• Post-It notes (various sizes)
• Restickable Glue Stick
• Single and double sided tape
• Photo Copy Machine

As to your second question, I usually search for icons on Google, Dribble, and Pinterest. Searching for the specific term will help me understand what the general consensus around how to represent the term visually and then try to represent the term for user I am designing for so that will easily identify or connect with it.

I hope this helps. Thanks for asking!

Reach out anytime you have a question. I’m always here to help with sketching and UX design related questions.

Cheers,
Rizwan