Pick up the pencil: Create thumbnail sketches

Before the Web UI, print designers used a method called thumbnail sketches (thumbnail sketching) to try to express and refine their ideas. This approach seems to have been lost in the current era of PC tools.

Here we will briefly describe what thumbnail sketches are, and some tips to help apply this technology to your work.

Before drawing a wireframe, sketch

The topic of wireframe (wireframing) is long-standing. There is no need to avoid this topic, and many designers and ui/ux experts believe that wireframe is a basic and the first step in the overall project, allowing us to focus on the underlying architecture rather than the extraneous design-style distractions.

Another definition is that wireframes help us focus on how the page is built at the most basic level. In fact, I often wonder why everyone doesn't discuss a sibling method that is more remote and mature than a wireframe: thumbnail sketches.

Thumbnail sketches are similar to wireframe methods, but he is more basic than the so-called wireframes. Let's see what thumbnail sketches are.

What is thumbnail sketch

The name sounds interesting, but if you think about it carefully, you'll know that Thumbnail is a completely different concept. For example, when I mention the thumbnail likeness (Thumbnail Gallery), you will naturally think that this is an overview page of a photo album with lots of small pictures, and then you can see a variety of large images after clicking.

It is this meaning that you may be able to guess that the thumbnail sketch may be a small size hand drawing. The meaning of thumbnail sketches is to create a lot of ideas on paper in a short time. Simply put, he is a visual brainstorming method that creates as many possibilities as possible when you don't need to worry about all sorts of puzzles and detail adjustments. In some form, he is very close to the wireframe, just smaller and quicker. In general, designers can create a lot of small sketches, and then select a few of the best continue to follow the line diagram.

How to Do

To start writing, just pick up a pencil and draw a few simple empty squares to represent your browser frame, page borders, or anything you need to work on. You can even find some templates that can be printed to help you get started quickly.

From now on, you can start your ideas. This does not require you to focus on the work you are doing, instead you need to focus on how to generate your ideas. Thumbnail sketches are a quick and even lazy approach. With the most basic shape, don't spend too much time on a single graphic, so long as you find the basic composition or originality you want, you can stop the next step.

Why is it better?

What can you get out of the grass in the paper? You may be surprised that, as designers, it is easy to fall into the narrow sense that, in the process of using computer authoring, we are too easy to create a near-complete thing.

The problem is that when you spend your time on an idea, you unconsciously protect your creativity psychologically. Unfortunately, your first idea is usually not your best.

When you have already put your idea to work, it becomes more difficult to give up and start a new idea. You continue to develop your old ideas because your brain is stuck. Even if you don't have a problem like this, you'll still spend a lot of time developing new ideas.

The disadvantage of this approach is that you do not take development ideas as an important consideration. "Important thinking" refers to what is truly valuable and logically reasonable. Instead, you might just have three ideas and then choose among the three. You may have a way to come up with 10 better ideas and even have the chance to be better than these three, but you don't have time to finish.

Using the thumbnail sketch method, you might actually play your brain and force yourself to start the creative work of the real sense and create more and richer options. With this approach you can find more ideas and carefully evaluate which approach is more appropriate and move on.

Save time?

Some people may think that it is enough to finish the final design work according to the predetermined design schedule and tempo, no need to spend extra time! But if you can successfully implement thumbnail sketches, learning may save more time in the future.

First of all, you don't need to spend a whole day doing this work. Sometimes it takes only 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes to create a creative idea, and it all depends on you. More importantly, this step of work gives you the opportunity to review and evaluate the design before it finally begins to be created. You will find that the design behind you is faster because you have thought enough and know which is the best idea.

And not just typesetting?

Generally speaking, when I refer to thumbnail sketches, I may refer to the idea of typography, which can be used in any type of design. For example, a logo sketch design may be a rough sketch design at the beginning.

Pick up a pencil, start to create hundreds of ideas seems to be a very natural way to design a logo, so why not this technology to other design taste it?

Posters, web design, manuals, business cards, application interfaces, font design, all of these types of designs can start with a few minutes of thumbnail sketches.

Tips for thumbnail sketches?

Now that you know what thumbnail sketches are and how to apply them to your workflow, let's use some tricks to help you do it better.

Maintain low accuracy

Some of us are very good at painting. But some people are very afraid of the pencil because it can not be expressed to draw a complete sketch.

But in our present example, those who are not good at painting may have a better advantage. If you can't draw, that's great, you're perfect for creating thumbnail sketches. People who are very good at painting may spend more time creating thumbnail sketches because they are too determined to be straight in each line and whether the circle is more rounded.

All we need to know is that the key to applying this technique is quantity rather than quality. I'm not opposed to the perfect sketch, in fact, I like to see the drafts of top artists, but you just have to make sure your goal is to transfer these ideas from your brain to the paper. For example, you only need to draw a long square, you remember that this represents the title of the text, and do not need to go to the verbatim words of writing.

Push forward

Another thing to keep in mind is to avoid spending too much time polishing an idea. If you draw an idea and you don't feel like it, don't erase it and start again. Simply put aside and continue with your next idea. Maybe when you look back in a few hours you'll find the idea might be good.

As much as possible.

When you're creating ideas, don't stop at 5 to 6. You are the creative expert, you should have more direction. I know that design professors sometimes ask students to create 25 or more sketches for the same project at a time. Such a number would be more inspiring to create.

Don't draw the same thing 50 times

When we start creating more sketches, your first instinct may make most of your ideas look the same. This is a very common situation. Try to make the brain play his part, to create more unique and different directions of the concept. Remember that this stage is just a brainstorming phase, and all of this is not necessarily a bad idea. Crazier, more out of bounds.

Pay attention to retention when finished

If you can, try to leave the drawings below for future reference. As you go deeper into the project, you may be looking back at the previous creations. You may have lost your focus. You need to look at the initial ideas to help you get it back, and your clients may not like your ideas. You can go back to the sketch to find the treasure.

Some of the things I do often do is find a pressure pen to use software like Adobe Ideas or Idraw to create some sketches on my ipad. Using a digital product to record my sketches is very helpful to me because it helps me to keep these records. And then import it into illustrator or Photoshop for the next process.

Summarize

Making thumbnails of your final thoughts may be annoying at first, but as you do in a generation, you will find that you enjoy the process very much. For me, the best part of a project is to start, to create countless possibilities before I start worrying about the details.

Perhaps thumbnail sketches do not apply to everyone. If you don't find this helpful, you don't have to waste time. However, I recommend that you try some of the projects. See if you can really run your brain and find some great ideas.

If you use this method, you may wish to leave a link for us to look at the sketches you have drawn!

Photo rights: Dan Lurie, Tobias Soft (1) (2), Nunile, Jeremy Keith, Shawn Campbell and Cannedtuna.

This article is compiled from Allan, the original address.

The source of the translation: Design Shack.