Hi, welcome back. So far we've talked about ideation and how to come up with lots of ideas to solve our user's problem. Now it's time to start the fun part, sketching. In this video, we'll discuss why quick, simple sketches are critical in the ideation process. You'll try sketching by doing an exercise called crazy eights. This is it. We're ready to start drawing. For some of you, this will be your favorite part of design. For others, drawing can be a little intimidating. The good news is that we're going to create truly simple designs. In fact, your drawings don't actually have to look like anything in particular. Remember that in the ideation phase, we're just exploring lots of ideas, not trying to create something beautiful. Let me show you. Grab a piece of paper and a pencil or marker. We're going to practice sketching. Let's start by drawing basic shapes, triangles, squares and circles. Add in straightened squiggly lines. Sprinkle in a few stick figures of humans. You might need a bit of text as well. Here's a pro tip, use all caps if your handwriting isn't neat and write horizontally so it's easy to read. Soon when you're more experienced, you might switch from drawing basic shapes to drawing phone screens or websites so that your sketches look more realistic. But for now, just draw what you know. There you go. You've learned to sketch. Simple, right? To learn more about the benefits of sketching and explore some techniques, check out the reading materials in the course. You might be wondering why we sketch by hand and don't do this on a computer where it's easy to copy and paste pre-made shapes. Well, you certainly can do this on a computer, but the point of sketching is to move as quickly as possible to record lots of ideas. Technology can sometimes hold us back when our hands want to move faster than our brains. Sketching by hand is a valuable skill for you to master. Remember our example from earlier, where Olivia needed a way to ride her bike with her two-year-old who couldn't ride his own bike. We came up with eight ideas to solve Olivia's problem. That process was basically a polished version of crazy eights. This type of ideation is a very common part of the design sprint process. In the ideate phase of a design sprint, the whole team might come together and do the crazy eights exercise. Crazy eights lets you compare ideas, see everyone's different ideas, and narrow down the list of ideas before moving on with the best solutions. Don't forget, the best solution is always what your users think is best and not what you or your team thinks is best. Right now, to get started, you'll try the crazy eights exercise on your own. The setup for crazy eights is easy. You'll need a large sheet of paper, regular printer paper will work fine, but if you have something larger, that's even better. Fold the paper in half, then fold it in half again, then in half one more time. Now you have eight rectangles that are about the same size. Each of the eight spaces will be for a different idea. That's where the crazy eights name comes from, if you were wondering. Next, find something to draw with. A lot of designers like Sharpies because they create distinct lines. Or you might want to use a pencil so that you can darken certain areas. You'll also need a timer. The crazy eights exercise will take eight minutes, one minute for each idea. Any kind of timer will work, your phone, Google search, or a wind-up kitchen timer. Finally, you'll need to refer to a problem statement. You'll sketch eight ideas to address that problem. To inspire you, let's go through an example based on a new problem statement. Charles is a retired grandfather who needs a way to keep his essential belongings with him because he often loses track of his wallet. I'll draw eight ideas for this one to serve as an example. Later, you'll do this exercise yourself. Remember, no idea is too wild so I'll draw any solution that comes to mind. Here we go. Here are some of the ideas I came up with to address our problem statement. Let's walk through four of them. As a reminder, our problem statement was, Charles is a retired grandfather who needs a way to keep his essential belongings with him because he often loses track of his wallet. Sketch 1, an alarm that goes off as Charles opens and closes his house's exterior doors to remind him to bring certain belongings, like his wallet, keys, and phone. Sketch 2, a sign on his front door that says, remember to take these things with you, place them here when you get home. Sketch 3, a doormat with a checklist that says, phone, keys, and wallet. Sketch 4, and my personal favorite, shoes with false bottoms that he can keep a wallet in. Now you're ready to try crazy eights on your own. Try using a problem statement that we outlined earlier in the course. Like this one, Amal is an athlete who needs a way to sign up for workout classes, because the class he wants to participate in fills up fast. Or choose your own problem statement. Pause the video and start your timer. Remember, spend one minute on each idea and sketch possible solutions to solve this problem. Congratulations, you just did your first set of crazy eights. How did that feel? Were you able to come up with eight ideas? The crazy eights exercise is great practice for any design problem you need to solve. The sketching and ideating both get easier the more you do it. A great way to learn is to get feedback on your ideas. If you would like, take a photo of your completed crazy eights grid and share it on the discussion forum or do the exercise again with a different problem statement. Up next, we'll talk about how you can use the data you gathered in your user journey to ideate.
