Incollection,
Thinking with sketches
1, (2009)
Abstract
DESIGNERS sketch. One reason they sketch is that they design things that can
be seen. A sketch can resemble what the designer wants to create. Unlike the
contents of the imagination, a sketch can be seen. Thus, sketches serve to
amplify a designer’s imagination and relieve limited-capacity working
memory. Sketches map on paper things that exist in the world or the
imagination and the relations among them, spatial or abstract, to elements
and relations on paper: a natural mapping. They can be used to convey
concepts that are literally spatial, such as objects, buildings, and environments, as well as concepts that are metaphorically spatial, such as information systems, organization charts, and family trees.
Models can convey objects and spaces as well, perhaps more so than
sketches, since models are three-dimensional. Both have a place in design.
Early in the design process, sketches have advantages over models, especially
when the designer is considering many alternatives, which may be vague or
partial. Sketches are just that, sketchy; for example, they can represent
incomplete objects as blobs, or incomplete connections as wavy lines, so
that a designer can consider general configurations before committing to
particular connections and specific shapes. Models demand completeness.
