Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design

Sketches are not Prototypes

Practice is the best of all instructors

— Publius Syrus

Now that what I mean by sketching interaction is becoming a bit more clear, it is inevitable that someone is going to ask something like, “Isn’t what you are calling a sketch just another word for prototype or low-fidelity prototype?” The answer is emphatically, “No!” The distinction between a sketch and a prototype is—for me at least—one of the most interesting things to emerge as I went down this path.

Sketches and prototypes are both instantiations of the design concept. However they serve different purposes, and therefore are concentrated at different stages of the design process. Sketches dominate the early ideation stages, whereas prototypes are more ...