CategorySketching

September 14, 2021 — When designing for digital spaces, it’s natural to default to digital mockup tools, but doing so cuts out a world of possibilities. Analog drawing can unleash your imagination and allow you to focus on what’s most important at the start: the ideas. Read more…

December 16, 2019 — The sitemap meeting can be a minefield of multiple stakeholders, multi-dimensional categories, historical analytics, new products and mobile-first demands. Using a live illustration of a customer site journey, you can create a meaningful sitemap with which site visitors will resonate. Read more…

December 7, 2017 — There are a good number of benefits and reasons why you should consider integrating design workouts into your team. In this article, Arthur shares some exercises which are worth trying out with your design team and get you all to train before the big game — together. Read more…

January 2, 2017 — Have you tried drawing animals from circles? It can be quite a challenge, especially if you can only use a particular amount of circles. Dorota explains how she created 13 animals with only 13 circles. Read more…

November 10, 2016 — I have been drawing desktop wallpapers for Smashing Magazine’s monthly collections for over a year now, and every time it’s a very fun and challenging mission. In this article, I would like to share how I approach all stages of the process and provide general techniques for creating vector illustrations in Adobe Illustrator. Hopefully, you will find these techniques useful. While referring to a particular drawing — the illustration for the “Understand Yourself” desktop wallpaper, which was featured in May’s wallpaper collection this year — I’ll also highlight key takeaways from my experience as an illustrator and designer. Read more…

November 10, 2014 — People make all sorts of visual notes. An army of sketchnoters is out there, and everyone has their own style. Some do amazing sketches and lavish letters. Some translate complicated concepts into easy-to-grasp diagrams. But for the sake of this article, let’s keep it simple. Making your notes more interesting doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking. It’s not like learning to play the piano or taking up diving. If you think sketchnoting looks fun, Elisabeth Irgens has some tips to get you started. Read more…

October 10, 2013 — Is sketching by hand more than a nostalgic activity? How is paper any different from a screen, especially when hardware is becoming more and more sophisticated? Is improving your hand-sketching skills really worthwhile when high-tech software is advancing every day? Read more…

June 24, 2013 — One way to gauge mobile experience is to look at the tools at our disposal. Prototyping tools enable us to build wireframes and click-dummies. We seem to be in a better position than ever to design great experiences in virtually no time. However, these tools come with a hidden cost: they tempt us to skip the key step necessary to creating a well-designed product — which is to take the time to understand the problem we are given. Read more…

September 19, 2012 — A new freebie for Smashing Magazine’s readers: two printable UX sketching and wireframing templates designed by Pixle. Enjoy Outline and Tapsize! Read more…

June 7, 2012 — The mobile Web has gotten a bum rap. It spends most of its time either in the shadow of the desktop or playing the role of the native app’s frumpy friend. Luckily, we’ve got the tools to change that. Progressive enhancement, mobile-first and responsive design can help lead us towards a more unified, future-friendly Web. That’s the good news. The bad news? These tools are worthless if you don’t have license to use them. Read more…