How Sketching helps in User Experiences
Book read: Sketching the user experiences Author: Morgan Kaufmann. This book is consists of 6 sections. It has been well explain various techniques to Sketch.

Why is sketching a good way for you to think about and generate user experiences? Why do so many designers carry a sketchbook, and why should you join them? How can you begin sketching to brainstorm and refine your design ideas?The book has explained various techniques to sketch and to get inspired.
Why Should I Sketch?
Sketching is not about drawing, it is about design. Primarily, it is:
– a fundamental tool that helps designers express, evolve and communicate design ideas;
– a critical part of a process that begins with idea generation,elaboration, to design choices, and ultimately to engineering.

Getting the Design Right

As you can see, we can think of the design space of an idea as a 3D hill. The best possible design of the idea is at the hill’s peak.
The goal is to discover the optimal design solution for that idea among all.
The Problem

If the idea is not a good one, then the ‘best’ design solution will only be so-so.
Consider the figure on the right, which tells how other design ideas may have fared in the design space.
Getting the Right Design
Getting the Right Design is about considering many other ideas and then choosing between them. That is:
– generate many ideas, e.g., inspired by brainstorming, discussions, lateral thinking, client discussions, observations of end users, etc.;
– reflect on all your ideas;
– choose the ones that look most promising and develop those in parallel;

Elaboration and Reduction

• Elaboration: generate solutions. These are the opportunities.
• Reduction: decide on the ones worth pursuing, and then elaborate on those solutions.
As a designer, you elaborate to expand your repertoire of ideas, while at the same time reducing the number of ideas — ultimately to the one that is most promising.
The Design Funnel: Product View
Stuart Pugh (1990) illustrated elaboration and reduction as a design funnel.

If a green light, they go directly to engineering where the product is built. The next phase is when it ships — usually late, with bugs, over budget, and missing functionality.

As shown in Image 2, the interplay between design, engineering, management, marketing and sales throughout the entire product cycle.

The design funnel generates and develops ideas in parallel, where it filters and eliminates designs until convergence. At that point one or more designs can be considered for green light.

Here, engineers, managers and marketers will work with designers on the early stage, while designers still keep a hand in the process during engineering and sales.
Hope you have get an idea about the importance of sketching in improving user experiences. You can go through the book to read more about it.
Thank you!!
