Communication in design draw "rough" sketches with pencils

Before the advent of the Web UI model, for a long time, designers chose to use thumbnails (Thumbnail sketching) to present their ideas and express their ideas. This technique is like an art that designers use to communicate, and the art is now fading out of sight.

And through this article, let us re-examine the taste of this art.

For designers, the expectation of wireframes is actually a way to sort out their ideas in heavy design work. Drawing thumbnails is more about accumulating more ideas for yourself and finding the sparkle in your thinking.

A sketch is a base for drawing a wireframe.

Wireframe (wireframing) is the basis of our familiar design. As you now know, most designers use wireframes as the first basic step in design.

In fact, thumbnails are a much older and more mature technology, but now we basically don't have much energy to discuss this technology. Thumbnails are not as valued as they used to be, and we don't have to shy away from this topic, because now the use of wireframes allows designers to focus on the most basic page architecture, making the design process free from the design-style considerations.

But the thumbnail is really more basic than the wireframe, in the design through the drawing of thumbnails, the expression of the design more materialized. But more importantly, the designer is willing to understand and use thumbnails.

What is the meaning of thumbnails

Thumbnails sound like simple strokes, and it's interesting to hear the first feeling of the name.

However, the meaning of thumbnails is more in a short period of time, a lot of their ideas are drawn on paper, directly speaking is a visual brainstorming. At this point, the thumbnail is the same as the wireframe, but the thumbnail structure is smaller and the production speed is faster.

When completely free from all kinds of distractions, the thumbnails can record more ideas than wireframes in the same time. In this process, the designer can draw a large number of thumbnail drafts, and on the basis of these drafts can be further the drawing of wireframe.

How to Do

In the process of creating thumbnails, we need to draw a few simple browser templates, page borders, which can be any design template you need. Here are some ready-made templates that might help you with your design.

When you have completed these preparations, you will be able to begin your drawing. In the process of drawing, you do not need excellent painting work or any other skill. On the contrary, you can completely into the creative thinking, draw their own ideas, even if it makes you too hasty in the process of drawing, can only draw the works of child graffiti.

At this point, thumbnails can be said to be a pursuit of speed, or even a lazy behavior. Throw away all the extra touches that will waste your time, just the simplest graphics, the most basic frame you can think of and the next design.

What can this bring you?

What can we get out of these seemingly rudimentary little tutu?

Now the situation is that we've been able to easily get too much

Through the computer to draw, our creativity is often just generated when it can be quickly produced to the closest realistic drawings.

But this poses a problem: Although the process is very short, it is still only enough time for us to show one or two designs. Although we hope that these designs will eventually be implemented, our initial design is often not necessarily our best design.

Premature visualization of a design is not necessarily a good thing.

When an idea has been drawn into a relatively shaped wireframe or even a prototype, visual manuscript, it may be difficult to refine the design or even start a new design. Even in a design where you don't face situations where you need to improve, you're wasting an opportunity to do a lot of creative work.

With a variety of devices, software we can easily make a design, but by drawing thumbnails we can in a very short period of time to record a lot of ideas, and we are recorded in the design, we may find ourselves in the process of creating the sparkle.

Save time for yourself

In the design, the management of time is always put in the first delivery process, often planning time, for their own delivery results set a strict deadline (aside from the original, the translator is proud to have a certain degree of procrastination).

In practice, however, design does not require all of the time to be spent on deliverables, and the time it takes to generate the idea depends entirely on the individual. By drawing a thumbnail, this step takes almost all of the creative generation. And this step allows you to evaluate and examine your own results to a certain extent. Because you are considering the situation is enough, so in the follow-up process you can deal with the unexpected situation faster, including layout changes and functional conversion.

Thumbnails are not just for layout

When we're talking about this concept of thumbnails, we're not just focusing on the layout, the thumbnails play around in any type of design. In fact, when you draw a logo, you start by drawing a thumbnail.

When designing a logo, it is common for people to start drawing thumbnails, so in other areas we can make related attempts.

Title design, Web development, brochures, business cards, app interface, role design

Tips for drawing thumbnails

Now that we have a unified concept for thumbnails, we first need to find some principle techniques to draw it, no matter what field you use it for.

It's just a little piece of graffiti.

Also engaged in design work, it is possible that some of us can not use a pencil to draw a picture enough to express their own ideas.

But in drawing thumbnails this point, if you are a painting bitter hand, that's fine, you're more suited to creating thumbnails. Because for people who are accustomed to drawing with pencils, their habits restrict them from drawing thumbnails. A straight line, a rounded corner would be a stumbling block to their details.

We need to reach a consensus that the technology needs quantity rather than quality. We are not opposed to the perfect drawing, in fact, the author (translator is) very appreciate (translator is envy) can draw a perfect sketch of the artistic genius.

The above picture is one of the best sketches in the case, the drawing techniques in the article "Communication in the design, to draw a sketch of their own ideas" but in the thumbnail, we just need to summarize our ideas through paper and pen. We do not need to draw a bare 3D effect on the drawing.

Keep the pace of advancement

We do not need to be in the process of drawing too much to think of one of the ideas, when an idea is painted out of our liking, we do not need it to improve on the basis, but also do not need to wipe it off after the overthrow never. All you need to do is move your eyes away from the picture and start drawing the next idea. This is because, after a few hours you look back, you may find that the idea is not as bad as you think.

Never less.

Since it is the creation of ideas, of course, the more the better, the more. When drawing thumbnails, 5 or 6 are not enough to express ideas in your mind. When you do a thumbnail, you should be sure that you have a picture of the creative mind. Professors in the design profession will ask their students to put forward more than 25 ideas at once in the course of the tuition, this way can inspire creative thinking.

Don't draw 50 of the same picture

When we first make a large number of thumbnail drawings, we may have an illusion that every idea doesn't look very different. This is not uncommon, all we need is to play with our ideas, and if there is no clear concept, then think in different directions and areas. Remember what's done here is just a brainstorm, and all the ideas in it are not the best of all, just a "heated discussion" with yourself.

Keep your "every" idea.

Keep the drafts you draw as much as you can, now your elimination of these works may become an important reference (or become a reference to be affirmed after life, the translator thought of the Apple in recent years, Joe Master's life of the overthrow of the idea of a new turn out and realized, the designer must be very surprised).

When a designer steps into a whole new field, we often encounter bottlenecks. Looking back at the design that I once had a flash of inspiration, maybe it's just the idea that I need right now.

The method used by the author is to use Adobe Ideas and Idraw software to make sketches on the ipad using a pressure-sensing pen. Sketching with digital products is more helpful, and these devices can be imported into illustrator or Photoshop for processing.

If you also use thumbnails to create, I hope you can leave your link, and share with you.

Recommendation tools: Real-time Collaboration Network production Chart Cacoo tool, Cacoo is an Easy-to-use network drawing tool, using it can make a variety of charts, such as: site maps, wire frames, UML and network diagrams.

Via:designshack