UX Sketching: Why This Is A Critical Part Of User Experience Design

For any business to grow, websites or apps are essential in making the first impression. It reassures people and spreads brand awareness to potential clients. But have you wondered how website designers create the perfect layout?

Like artists, they, too, create multiple blueprints to decide on one final layout. This is called UX sketching and is an integral part of user experience design that we often overlook. Sketching is one of the best ways to communicate strategy and gives designers limitless possibilities to play around with creative ideas.

UX sketching is like prototyping through hand sketching. It is quick, archival, iterative, and simple to perform in any setting. Web designers create a single or a few sketches that are the foundation for nearly every project/website.

This article aims to answer the question, ‘Why is sketching critical for a user interface.’ But first, let us look at the procedure for creating these design layouts.

How do web designers create the final UX design?

The final website or landing pages on popular e-commerce websites like Amazon, Etsy, etc., result from creative and standard logistics. UX sketching is a step-by-step process for developing such user experience designs.

But first, designers need these sketching tools to create a rough representation of the thoughts and ideas -

• Pen

• Highlighter

• Sharpie marker

• Paper

• Post-it notes

• Graph paper

• Whiteboard

After gathering these items, they follow a three-step process to develop the ideal user interface.

Research

Before the drawing, it’s best to have an unmistakable and clear comprehension of the issue. The critical thing to remember is the customers' pain points and finding the best solution. To get a sense of your design, you must start by researching your existing ideas.

Additionally, it will give you new design ideas to support the existing ones. At Growth Jockey, we help our clients brainstorm ideal solutions for current and potential clients. As a technologically advanced team, we comply with industry standards to bring forth only the best strategies for continuous growth.

Sketch

Sketching enables you to quickly extract numerous ideas before you use a graphics editor tool to design. The most critical step in the design process is sketching out your ideas. One of the best things about sketching is that even without the slightest artistic skills.

Moreover, sketching is only used to investigate and explain design ideas. It does not require the technical finesse of a professional. Your ability to explain various interface concepts, not your artistic talent, is what matters.

For the process, designers usually use something permanent like a marker or a pen to draw on a whiteboard or paper. It's essential to keep your sketches brief, rough, and messy. As a result, you can concentrate more on the rapid formulation of ideas and less on design aesthetics.

Wireframe

While sketching is the first step of condensing your ideas, wireframe deals with finer details. A wireframe is a low-fidelity (essential elements of the final design) black-and-white design with concepts from the sketch phase in a structured manner.

There is a widespread misconception that sketches and wireframes are the same things. In wireframes, designers outline the intricate details. It is more of a refinement of the concepts created during the sketching process.

Post sketching and assimilating ideas, the immediate step is to wireframe. Here, the super vote method aids in selecting the most compelling concepts from each sketch. At Growth Jockey, we ideate the most suitable process to give your wireframe’s design layout the best features from each sketch.

Why is UX sketching vital for an optimised user experience?

94% of first impressions of a brand’s website relate to its design. Hence, the user experience, or UX comprising optimised websites and landing pages, is crucial. Your conversion rate will rise, and your business will grow if your pages are well-designed and simple to navigate.

On the other hand, visitors will feel free to click away and find a more straightforward solution if your pages need to be more transparent and precise. 88% of consumers are less likely to return to a site with a bad user interface.

Hence, sketching is integral for conveying concepts, demonstrating functionality, and illustrating user flow. It also shows tasks that necessitate human interaction. If you are interested in the benefits of UX sketching in creating the best user experience, here are the top five advantages:

Collaborative in nature

The entire team can collaborate and provide creative inputs when sketches are shared internally and externally. This results in a shared understanding and alignment from beginning to end. When you draw visual cues like a large circle and write the problems you're trying to fix, everyone can see it.

Now, everyone can draw it and brainstorm ideas around it. Multiple ideas and strategies boil up. Further, teamwork can reduce the number of mistakes in the design. User experience statistics show that only five users are enough to find 85 % of your site’s issues.

Provides creative liberty

Group work involves comparing and consolidating the best ideas by reviewing team members' sketches. Members provide verbal or written feedback and reviews on post-it notes to attach to the sketches. This results in a holistic or ideal model for your client’s UX design.

Further, it allows all the team members to showcase their talent and fosters an inclusive work environment. After pitching all ideas, picking the best concepts gets more accessible with a super vote.

Eliminates layout and functionality issues

When you present and arrange the concepts concerning your primary issue, you can organise them into recurring themes. You can connect the problems once you have gathered and put the ideas. This helps you understand where potential solutions have the most significant impact.

For instance, drawing things out helps everyone in the room understand how the problem is built. The team can then break down every theme into smaller pieces. It gets easier to work on those smaller ideas in a more logical and manageable way.

Your team can quickly identify, discuss, and eliminate the bad ideas because it is also visually available.

Time efficient

It doesn't matter whether you're sketching on paper or a whiteboard. Your clients and team members need to know the basics of the user experience so they can give you the content. Simple diagrams, whether for a screen or a service design, will help you convey your message.

Sketching allows you to express your ideas quickly instead of using complex software.

Faster wireframing

The fundamental design of the user interface facilitates the wireframing process. When your wireframe is sketched out, you don't have to figure out as much. You don't have to think of any more possible design paths when you've already done the sketching.

This stage involves fine-tuning the already-sketched-out concept. Hence, you can develop an in-depth wireframe in less time. Later, when you get to the visual mock-up stage, you will have a refined and detailed wireframe.

Tips and tricks for smart UX sketching

• Space and tools - The most crucial thing for creativity to flow is peace of mind. Therefore, pick a location where you believe nothing can hinder your creativity. Further, arrange your paper and other tools, such as pencils, pens, and sketches, so you don’t have to keep looking for them.

• Single page sketch - Drawing a project's overall vision and concept on a single page helps sketch in UX. It summarised your slides, early ideas, and overall experience in a single image that provides a vision for the project's future development. This is especially helpful when preparing pitches or in initial client engagements.

• Sharing - The additional benefit of visualising your ideas is this it is simple to share them with clients or internal stakeholders and the entire team in your war room. This adds value to your client’s experience as they won't expect it, so that it will set your projects apart from those of other agencies.

• Incorporate suggestions - It is essential to incorporate clients’ suggestions and feedback into your sketches so that they can see how the design will appear. You could even request customers to sketch out their concepts. As a result, the team can move forward with mutual understanding because everyone will be on the same page.

At Growth Jockey, providing customised and distinctive solutions to companies lie at the centre of our work ethics. With years of expertise and the brightest minds in our team, we offer result-driven prototypes to incorporate into your user interface.

Wrapping Up

UX sketching is a crucial stage for altering or perfecting designs. Getting concepts and ideas down on paper by sketching is more critical than perfecting a technique to convey the best user experience. It lets you think about all the different ways your interface could look.

Hence, you can quickly explore various options to determine the best design direction. Moving ahead, you can pick the best of the lot and decide where you go from there. This is precisely what Growth Jockey stands for.

We help you at this diversion with the assistance of the latest design strategies and robust UX technologies. We understand why user experience necessitates a thought-driven sketching process. Hence, we deliver well-curated models as streamlined solutions to businesses to increase revenue in less time.

At Growth Jockey, we are committed to delivering tailored solutions that effectively address the critical challenges faced by our clients across various industries, ultimately enhancing the user experience. Regardless of your company's size, whether it's a small-scale enterprise or a large corporation, you can now leverage advanced technologies to optimize your user experience. Take a proactive step towards unlocking the next level of growth for your brand by reaching out to us today!