Be a Cheap Designer
We all have the ability to be a cheap designer. By cheap, I mean using the least expensive method possible to communicate an idea and move it forward; using low-fidelity sketching with a pen (or pencil) and some paper.
Whether that idea will be taken to your team for feedback, turned into a testable artefact to validate with your users, or presented to your CEO as a proof of concept, using a low-fidelity approach has a long list of benefits to you and your team.
As designers we can sometimes get hung up on showing polished and refined visuals for fear of being judged on our ‘design’ (visual design) capability, so we jump straight into our design tool of choice. The proliferation of design communities where “production ready” visuals are shared doesn’t do much to empower a designer searching for the ideal process. However, jumping straight into high fidelity has the potential to damage your process and be more costly to your business through time and money.
Benefits of starting low-fidelity
Focus on your problem
Starting with a pen and whiteboard or paper allows us to focus on the problem at hand. We’re not going to need to set up your pages in Sketch, create and name artboards, draw some nice arrows to connect everything up or worry about keeping your layers in order and so on. If we did all of that, we’ve just spent 15 minutes and have nothing to show for it. Now multiply that by the amount of ideas we’re likely to explore and things start to get expensive.
Get your ideas out
Although it might feel like jumping straight into (insert design tool of choice here) is easier, it’s not always the best way to generate lots of ideas quickly. By taking ourselves away from a computer screen we are no longer caught up with the technology and the limits that this brings. We might also have a library of symbols, or a brand colour palette, or defined type styling. The more we get caught up with applying these to our design work at such an early stage, the longer ideas will take to generate.
Generate feedback early
At FanDuel we value the importance of timely feedback and critique of design work. But we’re not precious about how the work is presented. As a UX & Design team we’re used to seeing the messy process of rapid ideation, scanned in pieces of paper or photos of your sketchbook or dragging in the nearest whiteboard.
Generate the right feedback early
We’ve found that feedback can be limited if polished visuals are presented. Colleagues might not want to pick holes in something that has taken you a week to put together, it will be too complete and can distract from the problem at hand — instead focusing on details such as padding, type hierarchy and colour — all of which are important but can be critiqued at a much later stage.
Early collaboration
By using low-fidelity sketching in our process we can bring people together to talk about ideas early. It’s a chance to uncover any misunderstandings on the problem we’re trying to solve and raise any issues with potential solutions, this will save time, money and heartache in the long run.
Collaborating early is the key to good design, helping build better products and experiences through quicker ideation and iteration. It also enables teams to better understand the user’s experience by sharing and discussing ideas upfront rather than releasing your most polished design work that was created in a vacuum.
Anyone can do it from anywhere
One of the best things about low-fidelity sketching is that anyone can do it from anywhere. Sketching has a low barrier to entry, since you don’t need to know how to use the latest design tool and you will not be judged on how you sketch. You can sketch from anywhere with a pen, pencil and anything that resembles paper. Some of the best ideas were on the back of a napkin!
An idea might come to you while you’re daydreaming on your morning commute, or you’re using another app and something jumps out at you. Sketching these ideas down on paper takes minutes if not seconds and then we have it captured, ready to share with your team.
There is no undo
One of the most powerful things about sketching is that there is no undo. As soon as we draw that button, that card, or that UI element, it’s there. Okay, we can throw the bit of paper away but I’d urge you not too. Include everything you sketched down when you first reach out to your team for feedback. You’d be surprised how many incredible products are born from the smallest ideas, doodles or sketches.
The takeaway
So, there are lots of reasons why being a cheap designer can benefit our process. At FanDuel we encourage everyone in the company to sketch ideas — from engineers to UX researchers and product designers right up to our Chief Product Officer — we all understand and promote the value of quick ideation to help communicate and share a solution to a problem.
If you stepped into any room at any FanDuel office you’ll see whiteboards filled with ideas, diagrams, interfaces and scribbles. On desks you’ll see notebooks filled with rough ideas and potential solutions for how we improve a suite of products for millions of passionate users.
Low fidelity is low cost and low risk, but yields the highest gains for how problems can be solved. Embrace your inner cheap designer, pick up that pencil, share ideas early and often and you’ll see how you and your team can benefit as well.
