In the “real world” of design, designs are expected to be churned out rather quickly so that dev teams can have more time developing and addressing technical hurdles. Designs are expected rather quickly also to help the business do what it needs to do to make the product succeed. But acting quickly, and rushing to churn out a design won’t help to speed up the design, and sometimes can actually hurt the design process. Here’s what I have seen when a design has been expected quickly and not flushing ideas out with sketching or other forms of low fidelity prototyping.

Investing more effort

The sketching process is all about creating as many ideas as possible before settling on an idea that will not only work well for people, but will also let the dev team know what they will be building. This helps to prevent any surprises in terms of expected behavior. Without sketching and planning, I have seen the design process take longer and more effort invested, as people will defend the initial idea without having the ability to show the alternatives as to why the chosen idea was worthwhile. In addition, I have also seen headaches about expected behaviors, and teams going back and forth to find shortcuts that will help to get something out the door.

Fewer concepts created

Without sketching and planning, the design process becomes an especially limited help to those one is going to design for. The sketching process allows one to be able to create ideas and bring them to the design community, even in times of celerity, to let everyone know what one is thinking and how the community can help to make the ideas even better. Sharing these ideas helps to bring a space of opportunity for the community to decide how to address problems and to add new terms to the design language.

Biased towards technology already

Without going through this process, a designer is left to only address technical issues and the technology that needs to be implemented. This immediately takes a designer away from their domain – thinking about people first and the technology second. Sketching for me has helped me to see what hurdles need to be tackled and who I need to talk to in order to get these problems resolved. Sketching immediately helps to slow down the panics that happen during crunch time and think about people and technology.

More cost effective if you do it in pencil first

One of the more practical sides of sketching is that it will help to save money. Whether the sketch is for a label, or a new form factor, the sketches will allow the designer to have an educated proposal to the business about what is needed and how much effort will be needed to get the job done. It will also help to avoid costly redesigns and architecting, as the sketch will help to uncover these issues earlier, and at a point where either invention or a new concept is needed.

High fidelity really more shows a committed idea

If a designer immediately jumps to higher fidelity forms of a design, it shows there’s a lot of confidence and commitment to an idea. Having these is not bad in and of itself, but problems can arise if that idea isn’t brought forth to everyone in the design community. It can also show that one has created an idea and there’s little that can be done to change the idea. I start to worry when I don’t see sketching or a low fidelity form of concept generation, as it shows that there are forces that are causing fewer ideas and conversations from happening.

Creating shiny causes more focus on shiny

Using powerful tools like Illustrator can help show a fully formed idea to those who need some help seeing how a concept will manifest itself with code. Unfortunately, when this process happens, it immediately then changes the scope of feedback regarding the idea from about how the idea will help to solve a design problem at hand to feedback about colors, fonts, and other visuals. This feedback is helpful, but not at a point in the design process where an idea hasn’t been fully fleshed out.

Easy to lose sight of what you’re trying to convey

For me, sketching is a process that inherently allows people to see what problems are trying to be solved, and proposals about how technology can be used to make people’s lives easier. When there isn’t any time devoted to sketching, I have found that the effort then becomes spent on trying to make something that looks decent out the door. This unveils a different problem – that there isn’t enough time dedicated to creating a great idea to advance the company and the design efforts of the team doing the design work. At this point, to meet the schedule and other needs, the design process becomes more focused on grinding out details using design tools. Anyone can pick up these tools, but it truly takes a designer to understand how to invest their time on paper first before dedicating time to creating something “shiny”.

At work, I work with the visual design team on every design I do. I find this to not only be a good ground for getting critical design feedback, but it also helps me to see if they are going to find placing their efforts into a design will be worthwhile. I also find that working with a visual designer helps me to understand the subtlety in their work, and allows me to advocate for issues under their court when they are not in the room when problems arise. Below are some of my valuable insights about what a seasoned visual designer can provide.

Understanding what is interactable

Visual design is a lot more than just shiny. The visual designer helps to create components and visuals that users will immediately see and take away with them after interacting with your design. A good visual design will help to speak to users about what is interactable. Making sure that a visual design is implemented well will help to alleviate some immediate usability problems.

Understanding how to use gestures

In this world of touch, we as designers need to provide a language and visual cues that certain elements on the screen can be touched and gestured with. It is up to both the interaction designer and the visual designer to find a means to speak to users about how they can use their hands to do things to an interface that may or may not necessarily jump out. They can help show the difference between something that can be zoomed and something that can be tapped.

Professional look and feel to the product

Another thing people take away from looking at a product is how it looks, and how it interacts. The visual designer knows the language of a company or of a client, and it is up to them to create that image that will not only put the company in the best light, but will also look like it came from a respectable company that creates impressive software that meets real needs. If something doesn’t look like it contains the right polish, then either the visual design wasn’t implemented well or that the visual designer wasn’t included in the process.

Understanding proper grid layouts

One aspect of the design process that I’ve learned working with seasoned visual designers is the concept of the grid. This concept is about the idea that a screen can be divided in equal units, and that people understand what is important by how much visual weight and space is given to each unit. This knowledge has helped me to give better designs to them, not only to show that I’m listening and value their input, but it shows that I’m sensitive to that their work is much more than just a glance.

Can help to get people engaged and into experience

Visual design can help people immediately engage with an experience. Whether there is something attractive, well done, appealing, or anything else that people find desirable, the visual designer is there to establish those feelings. Akin to proper gridding, a well executed visual design can get people to start interacting and talking about what they find value in a product. And it isn’t just about the shiny – the visual design can provide the right cues to get people through possible hurdles in a product, in addition to finding value in owning the product.

Designers of infographics

Information is around us everywhere. Nowadays, we are trying to find better and more clever means to show a vast amount of information in a condensed and visual form for people to take in, understand, and act upon. Visual design can help augment the power of this information into a clever infographic. Not only is this a more modern way of showing large amounts of information, but they also contain humor and contextual information that is enhanced by the created visuals of a visual designer. From these graphics, a visual designer can turn a dry table into a meaningful and full of life infographic that people can directly take and do something with.

Help drive consistency and ecology of apps in a system

In working with a large company, there are many software applications that are made. It is up to the visual designer to help drive a consistent look and feel to each product. It is also up to them to monitor the use of their graphics and components to ensure they are used in the same way as they are intended. If a visual designer is not involved, components and graphics can be used wildly for any purpose, creating a design ecology that shows users that anything can mean anything. And this state of things doesn’t help users to understand what they are doing, or understand why software works the way it does.

One part of my UX toolkit that I enjoy having is that I like to prototype interactions using actual technologies. I have found the ability to prototype not only handy in the reasons listed below, but I have also found it handy when the dev team is trying to articulate why certain things are tougher to accomplish than others. For me, this is another means of equalizing the playing field in the design world and showing respect for those whom I’m designing for.

Below are reasons why I personally like to prototype and find it worthwhile in the design process:

Turn ideas into reality

Sometimes, an image or a sketch is not enough to understand intricate behaviors of how a design will work. When there are many details that depend on each other, this is where a prototype can help out. When an idea has never been implemented or thought of before, this is where a prototype can help out. Where there is some uncertainty of how the technology will play with the design, this is where a prototype can help out. Being able to transform a picture into a codified artifact is a vital learning step that can not only benefit the designer, but the dev teams as well.

Prove whether or not an idea is feasible

The statement pretty much sums up what the biggest benefit of creating a prototype – it proves the feasibility of the idea proposed. This artifact can then be used as a discussion point for user testing and improvements from a technical perspective to see if anything can be improved or if the approach needs to be altered.

Demonstrate respect to stakeholders

For me, the design process is a matter of showing respect to everyone who has their hands involved in trying to make something. The prototype is a means to show one’s stakeholders the responsiveness of the team; it also serves as a first means of understanding if an approach is suitable for those who have a great bearing upon the project. These people can get their hands on a prototype and use as a means of understanding those who will be using the final artifact and those who are financially backing the artifact. If I was putting money into a project, I would love to get my hands on prototypes in order to see that money was being spent well.

Enjoyable learning experience

I like to learn about technology and what are the different things it can do for me as a designer, and for me as a person who is trying to understand and solve problems. Sometimes it can be frustrating, and other times it can be real simple – but in all, this effort in creating a technical artifact is worthwhile. The process allows me to learn about technology, but what are the implications for the design, and for those who will be building the final artifact. That knowledge is vital when things don’t go as expected, or when a design needs to be rethought when the prototype shows that an approach isn’t worthwhile.

Another discussion point for the team

I also enjoy the prototyping process because it creates another discussion checkpoint. The prototype allows people from different backgrounds to come together and see a live proposal and then discuss issues from there. I’ve found that this helps to get the team to start thinking about what they are doing and how it will ultimately impact the project and the people who will be using the final artifact of the teams efforts. There have been many times where I’ve seen people that don’t communicate about important topics, and I’ve found that making the prototype is a great way to create that essential opportunity for communication. This artifact is worthwhile in India’s way, but also for the business community as well, as they can see where their money is going to be spent and how well they will see their returns.