Creating a compelling concept

Andrej: This is my approach to create a compelling and self-explanatory concept, even if I lack full clarity of the project.

Note-taking

Suggested Duration: 30 mins

Write down the sprint questions, scan through the inspiration board and write down everything that you think should be part of your concept. Stick to words, or draw simple boxes or outlines. You won't have time to look at details later, so try to write down everything that resonates with you. Write down which screens should be part of your concept (Landing Page, Dashboard, Profile Page etc.), stick to 3 or 4.

Crazy 8's

Suggested Duration: 10 mins

Crazy 8's is a quick exercise to draw some rough sketches of the product. Pick which screen you think will be the most difficult. With each iteration, re-arrange and prioritise the elements based on visual hierarchy. Iterate on the wording of the titles, choosing different words each time, even if you think they might not work. Try to talk to the user, converge to a nice layout by the last screen.

Integrate

Suggested Duration: 60 mins

Use your notes to fill out the screens with content. Make titles bold and dedicate each page to a specific screen. Try to be precise about the wording and use real numbers, even if you think they will be wrong or unrealistic. If you're not sure if something makes sense, write/sketch it anyway. It's better to express an idea wrong than to not express it at all. If you think that some parts of the concept may be hard to understand, briefly explain the benefit of it on a post-it.

Charlie: On the Note Taking there's one trick I've found which helps me to quickly categorise and distill the information on the board in a short space of time:

1. I quickly decide on the three most important steps the user will take in my concept. E.g. the three screens I'm going to sketch.

2. I take this information from the goals, questions, HMWs and map (I might have a quick look at the research if there's an example which is useful in understanding this.

3. I split a piece of paper into three with these three 'sections' now at the top.

4. This means as I scan the miro, using the process Andrej outlined above, I can quickly drop information, sketches, notes or ideas into each category.

Charlie: I've found this really helps me process the information quickly and means as I find a new idea or path, I can note it down in the section and move between them. The main advantage is speed getting the notes down, and then the speed to go over these notes again at the sketching stage. For me, it's too much mental capacity to consider all screens at once.

Expected Quality

Please see the following example from Beefy.Finance to see the quality and level of detail we expect from Product Designers in one hour of sketching: Beefy.Finance Miro Board

In this example, the client's sketches are also at a very high standard.