UX & Creativity

Why sketching and drawing are super-important skills for every UX designer

How impactful design is quickly visualized with pen and paper

UX designers have to master many digital skills. They know their ways in and out of Figma, XD, Illustrator, Photoshop, 3-D and animation programs, Google docs, spreadsheets, you name it.

Many UX designers also have excellent drawing and sketching skills. Why not use them? And use them often and generously?

Why are drawing skills important in UX?

In office or out in the field, observing, gathering data, interviewing participants, UX designers will bring their mobiles and laptops to take in-depth notes. The optimized designers also will bring their sketchpad, pencil, and eraser, penning observations and notations as they see them.

While researching in any environment, a creative spark can strike all of a sudden. In an instant, the perfect idea for a concept might appear in front of one’s eyes.

At that moment, we’ll need to sketch it out on the spot. Because ideas can happen any moment, we’ll need to be ready to note these inspirations down, by hand, on paper.

An example:

While looking at some very tall buildings, an idea for a landing screen and user flow appeared in my mind. This is how I noted it down.