Why Your Design Team Needs Five Sketches Design Approach
“I am once again open to learning more about UI/UX design. That interest didn’t spring up only because I completed a thinking aloud test with my group. I was motivated by other encounters during the course”. These words ended my last blog post where I wrote about my experience conducting a thinking aloud test. Now I am going to share yet another experience that raised my renewed interest in User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) Design.
My class went on an excursion to the UK. Unfortunately, I couldn’t join them because of some visa issues. However, my colleagues were excited about one of the facilitators they met in the UK. They kept on talking about how they couldn’t wait for Jerome to join us in a class in Graz. This piqued my interest so much that I also couldn’t wait for the class to start.
When the class started, I was so sure that I would be lost in it. Jerome mentioned what happened in London and asked about the task he assigned my other classmates present in London. To ensure that everyone is carried along, he gave a refresher of the class in London and asked that everyone should work on the task in class. The task sounded simple, but it didn’t feel that way. We were asked to make 5 sketches of a possible design for a platform. The brief was given.
Make 5 sketches? I wondered this as I sat in the class. I can’t draw to save my life. To ease us into making the sketches, Jerome asked us to sketch a house, an aeroplane, and one other thing I can’t remember now. Each sketch was to be done in 10 seconds or less. After the quick sketch exercises, we all settled to make our 5 design sketches.
After we have all made 5 sketches, we were introduced to five sketches design approach. This is where it really gets interesting. Five sketches design process was designed by a group of people Jerome worked with, in software development. The five sketches design process is best suited when there are limited resources available to create a user-centred design. This design process is also great for when the plan is to involve non-designers in the design process. The five sketches design approach encourages collaboration. It is built on the premise that it is cheap to generate many ideas — cheaper than building one thing and then discovering it was the wrong solution. Usually, this generative approach to design requires a team of three or four people to sketch and a facilitator who doesn’t sketch. Team members do not require any design skills. This first step of the process will take about 55 minutes of your time.
In line with the five sketches design process, the class broke into groups of 4 after we each made five design sketches. Each group was guided by the facilitator who was part of the team that created this design approach. In the groups we each did a short presentation explaining our ideas. Other group members asked questions and most importantly said, “Thank you for your idea” after every presentation. I didn’t feel confident about my sketches, but presenting to the group and seeing how they listened built my confidence. It was interesting to understand other group members’ lines of thought during the presentation. I should mention that my group was diverse. I am from Nigeria. The other group members were from Austria, Chile, and Jordan. So our approach to the sketches was worlds apart.
After this, we mashed up the ideas. Here, each person made two new sketches. Each of the two new sketches combined elements from the person’s first five sketches and elements from another group member’s. In my group, we took time to present again, pointing out the elements we chose from others’ designs and why we combined them. After all the previous sketching, at this point, we discussed for the first time why these new design ideas may or may not succeed. We then each made yet another new design sketch to respond to the discussion about the ideas that may or may not succeed. When we shared the finished design, we realized that everyone in the group ended up with a similar design. I found it interesting how we started from different designs and got to the point where we individually created the same design. It is also interesting that we never agreed during our interactions that we should come up with the same design. In my group, we didn’t even know that it was one of the possible outcomes. But somehow we arrived there.
Granted that there is a possibility not to get to that point. If I recall correctly, one of the groups in the class didn’t initially get that unifying design (but later did).
To conclude the class, I remember the facilitator asking how the experience was for us. For me, it left me feeling that I can be useful in a design team. I have always thought that because I have no design skills I won’t have any contribution to make. I felt more confident about learning new things. I enjoyed the collaboration. It was great learning from other group members while we contributed to the task. I also saw the need to get novices on the table while working on new designs. While expert designers will have to deliver quality designs, looking at designs from the perspective of potential users might be what a brand needs to get the right design that would do the work. Now, I feel more confident about taking another UI/UX design course. If I do, I hope to take you through the journey. I also hope that you consider the five sketches design approach for your UI/UX design, software design and other designs. It might be the missing piece.
