Sketching before pixels
Paper is faster, cheaper and far easier to throw away. That last part is the whole point.
Mara Elsen
Editor
The problem with starting in a design tool is that the work looks finished too early. Rounded corners and real type flatter a rough idea, and a flattered idea is hard to abandon.
Ten bad versions
We ask for ten sketches before any file is opened. Not ten good ones, ten quick ones. The first three are the obvious layout everyone would have drawn. Somewhere around six the thinking gets interesting, and by nine it is usually clear which structure the content actually wants.
The handoff to the screen
Once a structure survives the paper stage, building it is mostly execution. Decisions that would have caused a week of quiet disagreement have already been argued out at a table, in pencil, where changing your mind costs nothing.
