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Now it’s time to take what you know and start ideating on all potential solutions. In this video, you’ll learn the process of sketching and creating high fidelity mock-ups.
Design Project: Start ideating on solutions by hand sketching, then turn them into higher fidelity mock-ups in Sketch.
Access project files in the downloads
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Further Reading:
Wireframing Tools:
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[MUSIC]
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Based on everything you know from your research,
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it's time to start ideating potential solutions.
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Using the problem statement worksheet and your user journey map as your guide,
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begin to brainstorm some ideas by hand sketching.
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This can be an individual exercise, or
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you can also facilitate group sketching sessions with your product team.
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All you need is some pen and paper, or any other medium you'd like to use.
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When you're exploring solutions, try to go broad and
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brainstorm a lot of solutions before narrowing them down.
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The goal of this exercise is to explore as many ideas as possible.
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Don't feel intimidated or shy about your drawing skills.
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These sketches aren't meant to be really refined.
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But they're meant to be quick drawings so
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that you can get as many ideas as you can on paper.
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Think about the UX flow, what screens you'll need, the flow of these screens and
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how users are interacting with the app as you're creating these wireframes.
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After going through a few rounds of sketching and
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putting your ideas on paper, try to narrow down some options.
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Some things that will help to narrow solution ideas
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is considering technical limitations or feasibility.
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This is where communicating with engineers is important.
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You can also use a dot voting method, where each person on your team
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votes on the ideas that they like most by putting dots or stickers on them.
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Once you've narrowed down your ideas,
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it's good to have two very different solution ideas, so
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that you can test both of them and find out which is more successful with users.
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In order to test these ideas,
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we'll need to create higher fidelity mockups of our sketches.
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We'll be using a software tool called Sketch.
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Which you can also use by downloading a free trial version from sketchapp.com.
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If you're not working on a Mac,
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you can also use tools like Figma which we'll be using in our prototype later on.
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Once you've downloaded Sketch, open a file called Craigslist,
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which is provided in the project files.
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If you're using Figma, you can simply import the Sketch file and it should work.
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In the Sketch file, there will be a page in the left side bar called Assets.
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These are some brand and
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UI elements provided to help you get started with your mockups.
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Under the Template page,
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you'll see a template that you can use to help you get started.
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When you're starting a new project,
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it's helpful to start by setting up a grid or a layout.
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Go to the View menu and under Canvas select Layout Settings.
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You can set the number of columns and rows, as well as the gutters,
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which is the space in between.
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Once you've set up your grid, you can turn the grid on or
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off at any time by pressing the Ctrl key and L.
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Now let's' take your hand sketches and
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begin creating a mockup, one screen at a time.
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Don't worry too much about getting everything right the first time,
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in terms of the UI elements and visual design.
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Sketch provides standard iOS elements under the Insert menu,
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which you can use instead of creating them yourself.
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Then start thinking about the UI elements for this screen, by referring back to your
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hand sketches and start creating those elements on the screen.
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You can use the UI elements provided in the file or feel free to create your own.
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Drag and drop icons, whether they're SVGs, PNGs, or
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Illustrator files, into your art board.
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You can also add text and use the inspector on the right to change size,
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color, justification, fonts and so on.
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Think about how to translate Craigslist brand to the app interface.
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What are some colors, shapes, imagery, or illustrations you can use?
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How can typography, space and layouts enhance the usability and
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the aesthetic appeal of the app?
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One of the things from talking to users,
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was that while Craigslist users want a more visually appealing UI, they also like
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the familiarity of the Craigslist brand, which hasn't changed for so many years.
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And there's a sense of charm that shouldn't be lost by
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over-designing the app.
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For this mockup, I tried to make the home screen more visually appealing while
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using Craigslist brand colors and making sure that it still feels like Craigslist.
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As I was thinking about how to increase the feeling of trust and safety for
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users, one idea was to bring the existing safety tips that are currently buried on
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the website, more to the forefront, while the user experiences the app.
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What if users saw these safety tips at the beginning of the app,
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before they start using the app?
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On the categories page, I wanted to see what it would look
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like if we added icons to represent all the categories.
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Does it enhance the browsing experience for
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users, does it bring more pleasure to users, or is it more confusing?
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Does it still feel simple and straight forward?
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And lastly, on the search results page, I was thinking of some ways to make it
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easy and less overwhelming for users to discover and browse the post.
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Perhaps by having larger images and more space between the thumbnails.
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Especially considering the size of the mobile screen.
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You don't wanna cramp any small thumbnails and make it feel overwhelming to users.
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