Has anyone used the Interactive Sketching Notation?

January 19th, 2010

I’m planning to update the little sketching project I started a while ago and I was curious if perhaps some people might want to contribute any ideas. I’m already planning to take in Nathanael’s feedback but am also open if perhaps others made use of this, and would like to share their thoughts. Ideas in the form of text or sketched samples, all are good. Let me know (email listed in the right hand column) :)

Cheers,
Jakub

6 Responses to “Has anyone used the Interactive Sketching Notation?”

  1. Eric Basford Says:

    I've got a project on the horizon that I'm about to take from sketches/wireframes to something more interactive, and this looks like a fantastic way to document it. I just haven't gotten the chance to kick the tires on your notation. Thanks for all the resources you provide though, they have been inspirational!

  2. Jakub Linowski Says:

    Thanks. Feel free to let me know of any feedback you might have anytime (or even share whatever you come up with). Cheers.

  3. David Says:

    If you have to do something reallly interactive or even dynamic, is it not better to prototype it straight away? I use Justinmind Prototyper to prototype, and then it generates scenarios and navigation processes… so that i don´t get mixed up in the conditions!

  4. Nathanael Boehm Says:

    Hi Jakub,

    Thanks for referencing my blog. I have a few ideas – trying to tackle the idea of over-time interaction/response … I like the delta box but it can make it hard to keep track of the original screen; hard to hold that in your head.

    Might be better if somehow we can flip that around and centre around that original screen state using callouts coupled with screen region frame-by-frame storyboarding. I'll do up an example tomorrow.

  5. Jakub Linowski Says:

    Hey David. My experience tells me that sketching and prototyping are design activities that although might seem similar, they do have different intentions which might require different tools. Whereas the sketch aims to explore and suggest, the prototype is more defining and descriptive. See Buxton http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2006/11/16/buxton-… A healthy design process should also start of with free form hand drawing in my opinion, which electronic prototyping tools do not support.

  6. Nathanael Boehm Says:

    I've been doing a bit more thinking and I would like to suggest you experiment with a couple of ideas:

    Firstly, the idea of different colour pens – introducing blue. Using different colours to represent info/thought callouts as opposed to arrows that indicate a change.

    Also the Notation needs to accommodate changes in approach and UI … something better than just scribbling stuff out or starting again … a way of allowing an idea to progress whilst making it clear where the thought started and what the final decision was without cluttering the interface.

    The idea of abstracting global and page elements … so get your global design done and out of the way but also making it clear that all pages inherit from it … some sort of basic tree diagram. This also then filters down to screen regions – your deltas.

    Also, want to explore the idea of showing how a delta sequentially changes and why; either in response to user input or just time; like with my boxed comic-style 2-panel storyboard of the password field in the top right of the photo linked to above.

    Pulling out deltas is fine, but what about inserting them? How do you show "This would be inserted here when this meets this condition" without confusing existing symbols such as your callout and workflow arrows?

    I want to explore the tree and the panel storyboarding of deltas a bit more over the next few days – just need to find some real work I can apply this too …