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Design sketches

Explore sketches, drawings, and illustrations that simplify ideas related to Design.

What is a rich picture diagram — a group of people sketching a rich picture about planning a group holiday, showing connected ideas, icons, and notes on a large whiteboard to visualise a complex situation.Rich Pictures: Making Sense of Complex ProblemsPace Layers diagram by Stewart Brand explained: fashion, commerce, infrastructure, governance,culture, nature. Fast layers innovate, slow layers stabilise.Pace Layers: Six layers of robust and adaptable civilisationsWhat is Murphy’s Law? Meaning and example shown by a giant box labeled “This Way Up” lying upside down showing "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."Murphy's LawIllustration of Adam Smith’s quote about trade: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker…” showing how self-interest leads to mutual benefit in trade and a tipsy baker.The Butcher, the Brewer, the Baker — Adam Smith quoteF-Shaped Reading of content on the web from eye-trackingF-Shaped ReadingWhat is the Blur Your Eyes Test for testing designs and communication for structure showing an example of little and clear structureThe Blur Your Eyes TestSkeuomorph meaning and examples with icons of floppy disks, phones and others for save and callSkeuomorphEponym examples, explanation and etymology explained in a sketch with Erno Rubik of the Rubik's Cube, the Jacuzzi brothers, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, Lázló Biró, Etienne de Silhouette and Rudolf Diesel and his diesel engineEponymZigzag trenches in WWI: explaining why trenches were built in zigzags to protect against blasts from artillery and to slow enemies if a trench was attacked or capturedZigzag trenchesGestalt principles of visual perception showing proximity, similarity, continuity, closure, figure and ground, symmetry and order, and common fate.Gestalt principlesThe magic of open-air kitchens for Asian street food shown calling out each aspect that makes it such an ingenious set upThe street food open-air kitchenPillars of hope, steel starter bars or starter rods stick out of a house so that in the future it's easier to add an extra storeyPillars of hopeAffordance illustration: one person effortlessly pushes open a door with a flat plate while a victim of poor design struggles to pull open a door with a bar handle and a discreet push signAffordanceBlending buildings illustratiion: example of two large distribution warehouses one coloured in greens to blend better into countryside, and one in shades of blue to blend better into the sky.Blending buildingsDesign by committee illustration: A person demonstrates a camel as the solution to all the requirements for Horse 2.0Design by committeeSiphon illustration: how a siphon works draining a reservoir by running a water uphill, unaided, until it empties into a lower reservoir.SiphonCake wreck: a cake where instructions for the cake—"Happy birthday in purple, no nuts"—have been smartly written across the front. Intended as a metaphor for literal misinterpretation.Cake wreckFeedback fear illustration: A poor soul goes through all sorts of internal doubts about what they might have done wrong and how they might have failed when someone gives a friendly suggestion to ask what others thinkFeedback fearTwo houses showing different approaches to heating: heating people and heating spacesHeating people, heating spacesA spider constructing a common orb spider webA common orb spider webThe first draft is always perfect: A person creating multiple drafts of a sketch before reaching the one that hangs on the wallThe first draft is always perfectOne-size-fits-men summary: Piano keyboard showing different handspan widths and that standard keyboards advantage larger handspansOne-size-fits-menFor want of a nail poem: from the shoe, to the rider, the battle and the kingdom it's all lost because that fellow dropped the nailFor want of a nailThe curb-cut effect: A range of people of all ages next to a crossing, road, and park show how the curb cut design for disabilities benefits everyoneThe curb-cut effectReplicate, then Innovate illustration: inspired by seeing a peer present their decorative star, a young creative sets to; making lots of stars in different styles and sizes, seemingly without any plan in mind. Some are hung up on the wall, some coloured in, some combined with other shapes, until a large, multi-coloured, multi-layered star decoration comes together and hangs majestically from 2 hooks. The young creative seems pleased with themself. Replicate then innovateForcing functions in design - 2 examples: a hotel room with the lights controlled by key card and a lawnmower that needs both hands to turn it onForcing function — designLego faces are awesome: a comparison of the expressions on Lego faces from the Lego Movie 2 with one from the 1980sLEGO facesChindogu example: A t-shirt with a labelled grid on the back could be a useful tool to guide someone to the exact coordinates you'd like your back scratched. ChindoguThe Data Prison illustration: shows 2 tables with identical data describing a schedule of work and fun for every day of the week. The "imprisoned" data in the table on the left is separated by lines in a grid. The "freed" data in the table on the right has no lines, and instead uses shading and spacing.The data prisonThesis, antithesis, synthesis — Hegel's dialectic — as a progression of ideas illustrated with alerts invented on a phone, frustration with alerts leading to do not disturb settingsThesis, antithesis, synthesisProxemics illustration: inside a large cathedral we see opposite ends of the proxemics scale; a family whisper to each other as they walk around the cavernous main hall and someone else gives confession inside a tiny booth. ProxemicsWhat is Human Risk example: an enormous line of Mongol soldiers easily march through an open gate in the Great Wall of China as the two bribed guards take a nap. Human riskWhat is 2 factor authentication (2FA) and its meaning: using something you know, something you are, and something you haveWhat is Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)?Conway's law showing how the organisation of a company, as small, distributed teams or large colocated teams can reflect the architecture of the software as modular or monolithicConway’s LawThe Kitchen Working Triangle illustration: a plan view of a kitchen is shown with the distances between commonly related appliances and storage highlighted. The kitchen working triangleThe meaning of the third teacher as the environment from Reggio Emilia together with teachers/parents and peersThe Environment as the Third Teacher in Early Childhood and BeyondWhat is the OODA Loop example explained: military strategist John Boyd's framework for action in conflict is shown as a closed loop cycle of Orient, Decide, Act, Observe and back to the beginning. The cycle also applies to business when you reconsider the points on the cycle as Frame, Strategize, Test, Gather. OODA LoopWhat is The golden circle from Simon Sinek example explained: illustrated with the start with why circles, and Martin Luther King and the "I have a dream," not the "I have a plan," speechThe golden circle60-30-10 colour rule illustration: a man is shown wearing a plain suit, button up shirt and tie. 60% of colour on show is from the suit; 30% is from the shirt; 10% is from the tie. 60-30-10 Colour ruleThe customer value chain illustration: a concave up, decreasing line graph shows the different elements of competitive advantage at play as a new product or market evolves over time. The customer value chainWhat is MOSCOW Prioritisation with example: Must, Should, Could, WouldMOSCOW PrioritisationWhat is the golden ratio explained and the golden spiral and the golden ratio in faces, art, nature, architecture and how to calculate itThe Golden Ratio: Nature's Perfect ProportionsWhat is a technology S Curve with an example explained in a sketchThe S-curveWhat is a 2.5D object showing a 2D, 2.5D and true 3D object2.5DLet your data speak for itself.Fitts’ LawWhat is a Thoughtless Act example of a teabag wrapped around a handle of a mugThoughtless actsCognitive overheadDesire path: the difference between design and use illustrated by a person crossing a corner of grassDesire pathProgressive enhancementUse of the car horn chart showing the uses in decreasing order of "Idiot!", "It's green!", "I'm outside!", and, lastly, the intended "Watch out!"Use of the car hornMobile is snorkelling. Desktop is divingThe one-hoss shayCradle to Cradle or circular economy sketch. Production has to be a loop. Known often as the circular economy. Sketch of a loop/production loopThink cradle to cradleMapping illustration: Don Norman's famous example of the controls for a stovetopMappingEdward De Bono's Six thinking hats framework with the 6 thinking hats: White, Red, Black, Yellow, Green and BlueSix thinking hatsWhat is the Betty Crocker effect explained with an illustration about adding an eggThe Betty Crocker EffectSneaky casinosDesign for a Glance, a Look and a ReadChindogu: unuseless inventionsThe content is the interface9 WindowsPowers of 10Common button statesAnti-aliasingLateral thinking changes perspective just to be provocativeLateral thinking: 4. Lateral thinking changes perspective just to be provocativeLateral thinking: You don't have to be right at every stepLateral thinking: 3. You don’t have to be right at every stepLateral thinking: 2. Labels are not collectors but signposts. They are not fixedLateral thinking: 1. Lateral thinking is about increasing the breadth of optionsExpress - Test - CycleEnrich your design processPatnaik’s Hierarchy of NeedsMaslow’s Hierarchy of needs3 visuals explaining: Ask open-ended questions, Listen way more than you talk, and Stay focused to the very endPerform good social researchPlug computingHow many ideas will you get in idea generation quote: "The number of ideas produced in an ideation session is proportional to the size of the stack of paper in front of you."The number of ideas produced in an ideation session is proportional to the size of the stack of paper in front of youDesigning for adoptionAir-write before inkingBeware of local optimisationUrge to underline? Use bold or italic instead5 user tests finds 85% problemsThe second rule of improv: be spontaneousSecond rule of improv: Be spontaneousThe first rule of improv: Accept offersAccept offersOmit unnecessary wordsUse styling instead of colonsBe a type geekA flat surface has unused potentialDon’t let your thinking be limited by your toolsBuilding a good framework is like cutting cubes out of fog — Larry KeeleyLearn the Kano modelSolve the 9-dot problemDo a 2x2Some sensible interaction design principlesSome sensible interaction designUse white space with care to make your pointDon’t stack letters vertically. Turn your words insteadHit the product sweet spotTwice as much thought and half as much contentResolve a contradiction through separationGet good ideas
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