how tothink with your handssketching for design thinking

by ahmed riaz

space to doodle

this book belongs to __________

draw on me

Hi, Welcome to your book.

I strongly believe in learning by doing. So please

feel free to write in the book, doodle in the mar-

gins, practice the exercises, graw on the edges,

carry it with you. everywhere you go.

Start now. Go ahead. Fill in our name above

and draw a picture on the template.

It’s okay.

You can always download additional copies for

free on http://www.ahmedriaz.com/cookbook/

what is a sketchTypically what we think of a sketch is a unfin-

ished drawing. For our purposes I think it's impor-

tant to get away from that proto-drawing defini-

tion of a sketch and redefine sketching for

design thinking.

Sketches are simple powerful tools to explore

and solve problems and explore possibilities

all sketches must be

• Unprecious

• Quick

• Useful

Classically we think of sketches happen only

when we put pen to paper but anything that

has the above qualities can be a sketch.

paper sketches

software sketches

form sketches

electronic sketches

video sketches

sketch foundations

unpreciousnessSketches are not precious and can destroyed to

make room for more ideas. Unpreciousness is

the quality that an experience sketch needs to

have in order for a designer to be able to throw

it away.

Unpreciousness may seem counterproductive

but actually it's an essential aspect of design

thinking in that it allows for rapid iteration with

the lowest cost possible. The level of fidelity of

the sketch should only be as much as is neces-

sary to make a decision for all the stakeholders

involved. Sometimes this means training the

stakeholders to make decisions at a lower fidel-

ity that they might have been accustomed to in

the past.

The goal is to create a design process where

you have the willingness to scrap what you've

done and start over.

sketch foundations

quicknessThe ability to create sketches rapidly.

Quickness doesn't come easy. In order to

achieve quickness you need to build your

sketching vocabulary with a lot practice. In the

pursuit of quickness your avid sketch ninja will

also have a number of tips and tricks up their

sleeve. Templates, guides, stations, code librar-

ies all can help expedite the process.

Being quick is critical to volume of sketches you

can create. Volume is important because it

allows you to get beyond the usual to the

exceptional solutions. It's often up to the design

thinker to have the ability think through enough

possibilities to come up with something interest-

ing to further build in detail.

Quickness is a skill that takes years to perfect but

you can start working on it today.

sketch foundations

usefullnessThe third quality all experience sketches must

possess to be useful.

Sketches in design lead to solutions. While doo-

dling is immense fun for our purposes we sketch

as a means to an end. The sketches are the

medium in which design thinkers create a dia-

logue around the end goal they are trying to

achieve.

Keep in mind sketching and learning what won't

work is as valuable as learning what will. Often

you have to go through a lot of ways things

can't be done before you come to the elegant

solution. Fifty sketches of how things don't work

are useful when the lead to fifty first sketch that

use the right way.

If a sketch isn't useful you've just wasted

someone’s time and money.

sketch foundations