Interaction sketches

One of the new skills that I developed during this last academic year was the necessity to draw interaction sketches for a final product. The use of sketches to show how people will use parts of the product or grip it to make the final idea much clearer in the mind of the customer. Before University, this was something I'd never even thought about, never mind attempted. However, during lockdown I have set aside some time to focus on this skill and develop it.

I only first began using this skill around half way through the year when, in a drawing class, we had to draw our partner holding simple objects such as phones in different positions. At the time, this felt very strange to me but I quickly realised during my later projects that it's a simple and quick way of showing more detail to a client, allowing them to understand a product more. From this point, I tried to incorporate this skill into all projects, however, it was still very new to me. Therefore, I quickly became annoyed; spending an hour on each hand sketch and still not being happy with the way my hand looked. Unfortunately this lead to a little a cheating... With a looming deadline and a page of interaction sketches to do, tracing became my best friend... Oops!

However, with lock down, I've had a lot of time on my hands and decided to use this time in order to practice sketching hands. At first I hated what they looked like and they still took around 40 minutes to do, but they say practice makes perfect! I might not be perfect still but I can confidently sketch a hand sketch in under 30 minutes (including fineliner and a rendered background to make the sketch look more 3D) and be proud of the outcome. Something that seemed impossible only 6 months ago!

Looking forward, I think this is a skill that I need to constantly work at and need to regularly refresh in order to stay confident. (I took a week away from sketching hands and found myself struggling again and messing up on the thumb or fingers). Therefore, I need to ensure I work on this skill often to improve further. When it comes to second year projects, this will definitely be a skill I include in as many projects as possible, despite it not being a necessity.

Personally, I think having one final page at the end of the project showing how people will use the product helps bring it to life as it demonstrates relative size and grip. This skill also forces me to think more about the ergonomics of the product, including grip, curves and hand positions.

Overall, despite hating this skill the first time I did it, I've actually learned to really love sketching hands and think it's just as important as the rendered sketches in terms of bringing the product to life!