Recently, I read “Sketching User Experiences” by Bill Buxton, and was reminded of the importance of putting pen-to-paper and actually sketching out ideas, concepts, and user interfaces. For the record, I recommend skipping the wordy laborious book cause here’s the 20 second summary: sketching provides an effective, efficient, cost effective way to generating great design, so if you’re a designer of any genre, then SKETCH!…or something like that. In spite of the book, the message was clear that even in today’s tech age…it’s not only ok, but still good to do low tech sketching.
Since then, my geek nature kicks in, and I’m intrigued how new products are trying to blend low-tech sketching techniques with hi-techery.
Balsamiq
I think this product is either aimed towards geeks who can’t draw…or geeks who are too lazy to draw. Whatever flavor geek, it’s an interesting product that offers some lo-fi benefits of sketches without having to actually sketch anything. Another similar approach is using sketch type stencils in OmniGraffle .
Pulse Smart Pen
Ahh…the Holy Grail. A pen gadget that lets you upload whatever you sketch into the computer! And it even let’s you take voice notes to narrate your sketch concepts too?…no way! Now all it needs is an mp3 player, SD card expandability, and bluetooth support and we’re good to go! All joking aside, it’s a pretty cool product UX designers might actually be able to put to work. (btw…if Livescribe is reading…I’m not kidding about the bluetooth, and yes, send me one of these things so I can pimp it better for you).
Good Ol’ Sharpie
Cool blog entry by the folks at 37 signals. A good ol’ sharpie is a pretty good alternative to a ball point pen. Perhaps I’ll have to find a way to tie a sharpie on to that Pulse Smart Pen.
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