Concept, sketching, and flows

At the beginning of this phase, you need to check whether you have enough data to start the design to achieve your main goal for the product or whether there is still something missing. The goal is to have enough data to make it easier for you to take any decision to start the design of the product.

When it comes to the concept, you can use different methods, such as storyboards, project briefs, or project outlines, to start sketching your product design ideas.

Sketching is one of the easiest ways to visualize your concept ideas, which will allow you to see different design solutions before you decide on the concept you want to go with.

As UX professionals, you will probably sketch every day, no matter which phase of the UX process you are in. Some other professionals who work in UX fields like to start immediately by creating a prototype on the computer because they think it is easier, but you need to avoid doing this because it is not the best way to visually solve the problem. As I mentioned, the stage of the UX process doesn't matter; if it is needed to provide a visual idea of the new digital product through storyboard workflows or user flows, the more efficient way would be doing it through sketching.

You don't need to have perfect sketching skills; as long as they are understandable and clear, everything is fine, because the more often you do it, the better you will get. By sketching, we try to express our way of thinking to solve a specific problem.

Think of sketching as a form of visual communication that will help others understand the visualization that you have put down on the paper.

Depending on your needs, you can involve other things during sketching as well, such as sticky notes for more explanation on a specific area of your sketch if more information is needed. You can use a ruler if you have to deal with more advanced problems or for small details that you need to involve in your sketch.

The technique of sketching is not used only by UX designers, but also by other team members, such as project managers, developers, or business analyst, who explore their ideas for their own needs in their area by doing different sketches.

Creating good sketches will make your life easier by having a better understanding of the design problem that you are trying to solve, and you will also save time. But also it is important to be aware that this type of method is helpful for basic prototyping and brainstorming on early stages of product development mostly, because in later stages, the product gets bigger and more complicated, so to re-do prototypes we need to use prototyping tools instead of paper. Whenever you start creating the sketches, don't force yourself to immediately come up with a final result; draw some flows first, brainstorm your idea, and then put all of those things together, similar to the following:

Another good thing that you can do during the sketching phase is to brainstorm at the same time since sketching is a key element when you have to deal with design brainstorming as well.

Feel free to use any kind of sketching technique, as long as your goal is to provide a design with a great user experience in the end, because you can get as many idea as you want when you sketch, and, in the end, you can choose the best one to start the wireframe process.