High Fidelity and the Problem with 'Sketching'

This past June I attended UPA's 2007 conference in Austin, Texas. The keynote was given by Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research. The focus of Bill's presentation was 'sketching', a timeless core tool for creative design, that in software design is often bypassed in favor of high fidelity digital design tools. He presented two points regarding sketching that made a strong impression on me:

1. No higher resolution than required to communicate the intended purpose/concept;

2. Resolution of the rendering does not suggest a degree of refinement of the concept that exceeds its actual state.

Since the conference, I've been evangelizing this concept internally to my team (product design) as well as to product management and development. But I've hit a few snags in the fast paced world of software development. Namely:

- HIGH FIDELITY SELLS, LOW FIDELITY IS DISMISSED
With many projects facing complex priorities, deadlines, demands from the sales team, and countless other inputs, rough sketches are often not compelling and are easily overlooked or dismissed. A picture is worth a thousand words, but only if the picture is pretty. I constantly push back on higher resolution early on, but without higher resolution the project often doesn't get started in the first place. It's as if a high resoluton rendering is needed to inspire interest, only to be trashed and reworked through the correct sketching process once the project gets moving.

- HIGH FIDELITY COMMUNICATES A SOLUTION, LOW FIDELITY COMMUNICATES A WORK IN PROGRESS
(which is good for execs, but problematic for Development)
Here's one that's a little controversial (until you understand what I'm really trying to say). Low fidelity (rightfully so) communicates an unfinished design; a work in progress. And as Bill states, this is what you want... if your audience is marketing or decision-making executives. But with development it can be a little tricky. When we present something polished-looking to Development, even if it's not completely fleshed out, their reaction tends to be "that looks awesome - when can we get this from you so that we can plug it in?" When we present a sketch or something rough, the reaction is often to go and try to do it themselves.

In some situations this could be a good thing, and may be exactly what Bill is advocating - the roughness encourages others to think and contribute their own ideas instead of assuming it's already done. But in some cases unfortunately, it doesn't promote collaboration - Development just picks up the ball and runs with it without ever looking back. Yes, I know, it's a problem with process and culture. But if it exists, it exists, and until it has been fixed, it throws a wrench into the design-sketching process.

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