UX5: Sketches, wireframes and forms
Sketching many ideas
🎯You'll be able to
Sketch several different solutions to one problem quickly, and choose between them using the problem statement.
🏠The everyday picture
A tailor chalks lines on the cloth before cutting. Chalk is cheap and wipes off; a wrong cut can't be undone.
📘What it really is
- Sketching is quick drawing on paper or a whiteboard, with boxes, lines and a few words. It's for thinking, not presenting.
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Go wide first: draw several different ideas before improving any one. A common method, Crazy 8s, is eight sketches in eight minutes.
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Different means different: a list of times, a calendar, a "next available" button and a phone call-back are different ideas. Three versions of a list in different colours are not.
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Choose with the problem statement: which idea best helps the people, the goal and the obstacle you named in UX1? Vote, then explain the vote.
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Sketch the hard part: the moment that matters (choosing a time), not the logo.
- Paper prototypes are sketches you can test: one sheet per screen, swapped by hand as the person "taps".
📝A worked example
Input: the problem statement from UX1 (patients on phones can't easily see which times are free or which one they've chosen).
Steps:
- Sketch four ideas for choosing a time in eight minutes:
- a grid of time buttons with a clear selected state;
- a calendar strip with days, then times;
- a "Next available: 10:30 tomorrow" card with "Choose another time";
- a call-back request.
- Score each against the goal (find and book a time this week), the obstacle (seeing what's free and what's chosen) and the evidence (4 of 5 couldn't tell which slot was chosen).
Expected output: the grid of buttons scores best for the obstacle; the "next available" card is a good addition for people in a hurry. The reference prototype uses the grid; the capstone design notes can propose the card.
🌍Where it's used
- Design sprints: a day of sketching before deciding what to prototype.
- Workshops with clients: everyone sketches, so ideas come from the whole team.
- Paper testing in places where laptops are impractical, such as a village health centre.
📝Case scenario
A team spent two weeks perfecting one design for a ration-shop app. When tested, shopkeepers wanted a way to record sales by voice. A morning of sketching with shopkeepers at the start would have surfaced the idea before any polishing.
🖱️Try it
Do a Crazy 8s for the confirmation page: eight different ideas in eight minutes. Success: at least three ideas are truly different (not just rearranged), and one deals with "Is my booking confirmed?".
⚠️Common mistakes
- One idea, polished. Sign: the first sketch becomes the design. Fix: sketch at least three different ideas.
- Pretty sketches. Sign: rulers and shading. Fix: speed over neatness.
- Choosing by taste. Sign: "I like this one." Fix: score against the problem statement and evidence.
🛠️For your project
Before changing prototype/slot.html, sketch at least three ways of choosing a time and keep the sketches as evidence for Project 2.
✅Quick check
Why sketch several ideas before improving one?
Show the answer
Because the first idea is rarely the best, and sketches are cheap to throw away.
How should you choose between sketches?
Show the answer
Against the problem statement and the research evidence, not by taste.