Sketchedelity

The reasoning behind getting Eva-Lotta to present her excellent Sketchnotes mini workshop at last week’s London IA event at The Sense Loft was the hope that the influence of the presentation would permeate further through the London UX design community (and beyond).

No one sketches enough (apart from maybe Eva-Lotta herself, Dave Gray and Mike Rohde) and many don’t sketch at all. (Can you call yourself a designer if you don’t sketch?) You have to do it, there is not an excuse in the world that is reasonable. There is no rhyme or reason that sketching won’t improve your design process and the work you produce. Thinking is easier, expression is easier, communication of ideas is easier – and best of all (and I can promise this) you will feel better, in fact you will feel great. There may well be an initial pain barrier to get through but persevere and it will be worth it. You will feel proud and a real sense of achievement. You may well begin feeling deeply unsatisfied staring at your efforts but sooner or later you will begin crafting stuff that you will be happy with and will be useful. And I can again promise that you will improve – how can you not?

No one is too big, important, or busy to sketch. This is important to remember.

I hope more agencies, companies, organisations (&etc) will take the initiative that UX designers at Lab49 have taken after attending last week. (Yes I do work there, yes I may have influenced them slightly, but no it is not my proposal). Straight away they have organised fortnightly sketching workshops for everyone in the UX team (they have made it compulsory). It is initially for just the UX team but the intention is to then include developers and all members of the agile teams. The thinking is that sketching will provide everyone with better communication skills. I say so.

I’m calling it sketchedelity