#sketchinguserexperience

[exploratorydesigns]

Hybrid Sketching.  We've skipped a few pages in our sketching workbook and are now creating Hybird  Sketches (See Chapter 3.10 ). With hybrid sketches on has to take a photo of the context where the interaction takes places. This image is then used as the background of the sketch in order to display the context of use. Yesterday, I created a user interface for a stove // oven - and added 2 new functions today.  This new user interface should now be described by a hybrid sketch, which can be seen in above. It illustrates the security featurs - which enables the user to turn on function which only enables the user to turn on the stove, if the password is provided :)

[exploratorydesigns]

The Vanilla Sketch. Today's task was to take an existing manual for kitchenware and develop a touchscreen interface for that. I went for the stove because I often unintentionally turn on the switch for the wrong hot plate, because for me the switches are not positioned intuitively. On the top of my sketch one can see the switches as there are now - 2 for the oven and four for the stove. For my new touch interface I provided two sketches. The first one is for the use of the stove. There are four circles for each hot plate one. They are ordered intuitively in order to be able to get a right conceptual model. In order to turn on a hot plate one has to touch the appropriate hot plate on the interface and then position the scrollbar on the right according to the desired temperature. In order to enable the extended parts of a hot plate one simply has to touch the respective parts on the touch interface. The second screen shows the interface for the oven. There are only two parameters one can choose from - namely the name of the programm and the degrees. When clicking on either one, a combobox appears where one can choose from the programs or the temperature. I really tried to integrate the elements proposed in pages 91-94 of the Book "Sketching User Experience" which are drawing, annotations, arrows and notes. I think it's very important to add annotations and notes to one's drawings as they really improve the understanding of a drawing if someone is not familiar with a certain topic. I tried to use different colors in order to be able to differantiate between drawing and annotation. Especially arrows are an important tool - I will use them more often in the future to emphasize important points of my drawings :)

[exploratorydesigns]

Upside down. Today I tried to redraw this princess. Apart from the arms which are too long and too thin, I think it's quite ok :)

[exploratorydesigns]

Sketching Vocabulary // People.  Today's assignment was to fill a page of our sketchbook with people which are all drawn differently. :) Here you go! (:

[exploratorydesigns]

Upside down. Instead of geometry we have to do an upside-down-sketch everyday. This involves turning the image we want to draw upside down in order to better concentrate on the strokes rather than on the whole image. Today I've chosen as in "Sketching User Experience" suggested Picasso's Portrait of Igor Stravinksy. On the top you can see the original image and on the bottom my drawing. :) The head of my drawing is again a little bit to small but all in I think it's okay :)

[exploratorydesigns]

Sketching Vocabulary. Todays assignment was to sketch 24 objects somehow related to art. In the end it was really difficult to come up with further ideas concerning this topic. However, it was great fun :)

[exploratorydesigns]

Sketching What You See. The third part of the exercise included drawing the same image as in part 2 but this time the image to draw should be placed upside down. Also with this drawing I made an effort to concentrate on the strokes rather than on the person. I think overall this image looks far worse than the one in part 2 - maybe because i started drawing from the top to bottom (= from the chair to the hair) and i really had trouble with the place - i should have done this exercise on a seperate piece of paper and not in my sketchbook. The head is far too small and the legs far too big.  However, i think the shelf looks far better than in part 2.  Fortunately, we will practice upside down drawings in the next few days - so it might get better in the end :)

[exploratorydesigns]

Sketching What You See. This exercise was far easier for me and the person looks much more natural than the one I had to draw from my imagination in part 1. I really tried to concentrate on drawing the lines rather than drawing the person or parts of its body and I'm actually really satisfied with the outcome :)