Stating the obvious. It’s so natural for me as a designer. If I can’t draw, I can’t design. No-brainer if you are like me who love to design.

The question I got asked in my recent meeting. I thought to quickly summarize why I think it is one of the several essential step. Even though you might have heard before any of this objections such as ‘a tight timeline’, ‘need results quickly’, or ‘cannot show hand-drawn/messy sketches to stakeholders’.

• Sketching is quick to iterate concepts
Grab a paper, a pen and boom! Keep your creative juice flowing on the paper. Don’t like it, toss it and start a new one. No need to spend hours creating design experience or interactions using countless design and prototyping tools available in the market.

• Sketching saves lot of time.
In every way – designers, tight timelines, project budget, etc.

• Sketching enables us to explore design problem space and define solution at the same time.
In natural way, I can communicate my design thoughts and get quick feedback early in the process, in natural way. We all understand the space constrains mobile devices have.

• Sketching is cheap.
Countless design and prototyping tools comes with a cost.

I would keep few thing in mind:
Don’t confuse sketching with UI design. Your sketches don’t have to look good. In this phase, you’re not working on your brand, but you are conveying your interaction design ideas. Avoid temptation of going in details otherwise there’s high probability of getting feedback on look-&-feel instead.

Stop at good enough. Your sketches need to get your ideas across. Don’t get lost in (unimportant) details.

Be lazy. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Search for a printable sketching templates online that guide your sketching – whether it’s mobile, tablet or web.

Now, you know why I recommend sketching. Hopefully in your next meeting, you will not ask this question to designer. Happy Sketching!