Sketching Ideas

This is the part of the design cycle to get creative! Your ideas could be similar to each other, or very diverse.

The image below was created by a professional designer who was brainstorming ideas for a tourist backpack (Credit: Megan Wu).

Notice that the idea sketches here all have different styles, but they are all for the same type of product (a backpack). Also notice that some of the idea sketches are for individual parts, such as the cell phone pocket on the strap, or the pouch that fits inside the backpack.

For this part of the design cycle, aim to sketch at least 3 different ideas. You might sketch many more!

If your idea is not a physical product and can’t be drawn (such as a website, app, game, video, or system) you will need to find another way to represent different ideas. You can use both drawings and words to communicate the different ideas you have.

Notice that the sketches here are annotated, which means they have notes with arrows. This is an important way we can label different features of our design.

Student Example

This is an example from a student group making Halloween themed cupcakes. They created 8 different cupcake designs, and later chose the 4 best ones to make.