Sketching interfaces: toward more human interface design

TLDR

Researchers from UC Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon developed SILK, a sketching tool that blends paper‑style sketching with electronic features, and highlighted that storyboards enable designers to demonstrate interface behavior early to stakeholders. SILK lets designers sketch interfaces on an electronic pad with a stylus, automatically recognizing widgets, enabling interactive manipulation of elements, and supporting storyboard creation to illustrate component behavior. Unlike paper sketches, SILK allows designers to interactively manipulate sketch elements, such as dragging a scroll‑bar elevator, revealing component behavior.

Abstract

Researchers at University of California, Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University have designed, implemented, and evaluated SILK (Sketching Interfaces Like Krazy), an informal sketching tool that combines many of the benefits of paper-based sketching with the merits of current electronic tools. With SILK, designers can quickly sketch an interface using an electronic pad and stylus, and SILK recognizes widgets and other interface elements as the designer draws them. Unlike paper-based sketching, however, designers can exercise these elements in their sketchy state. For example, a sketched scroll-bar is likely to contain an elevator or thumbnail, the small rectangle a user drags with a mouse. In a paper sketch, the elevator would just sit there, but in a SILK sketch, designers can drag it up and down, which lets them test component or widget behavior. SILK also supports the creation of storyboards-the arrangement of sketches to show how design elements behave, such as how a dialog box appears when the user activates a button. Storyboards are important because they give designers a way to show colleagues, customers, or end users early on how an interface will behave.