Sketchstorming is a fast-moving ideation exercise in UX (user experience) design where team members individually sketch many ideas in short time frames, then share and build on them together. You use sketchstorming to generate many possible solutions, explore different directions quickly, and engage the whole team in visual thinking before moving into higher-fidelity designs.
Want to know more about the power of sketching? In this short snippet from a 1-hour master class, Mike Rohde, Designer, Teacher and Illustrator, explains how sketching throughout your design process helps you think visually, stay creative, and communicate your ideas clearly.
Try the following step-by-step approach to harness the powerful convenience sketchstorming can bring to your ideation sessions.
First, define the challenge clearly, such as: “How might we help new users onboard faster?” Then, gather materials, such as pens, paper, sticky notes, whiteboards, or walls, in a physical venue like a meeting room. Last, but not least, for the preparation aspect, timebox the session to shape it well. A good start is 10–15 minutes for sketching and then another 20–30 minutes for review and discussion.
Start with a quick doodle warm-up, where you all draw as many objects, icons, or abstract shapes as you can in 3–5 minutes. This helps shake off hesitation and lubricate the creative process so everyone can step right into the real exercise next.
Each person sketches as many ideas as possible, going for quantity over quality. Keep sketches simple: boxes, arrows, symbols, for example. Avoid words at first; you want to stay visual.
Post sketches on a wall or board. Everyone takes their turn to explain their sketch or sketches after others guess or interpret what they see. This format sparks fresh thinking and unexpected insights, and it includes a “fun factor” that can keep the session vibrant with everyone intrigued and engaged.
As an optional part, run a second sketching round where people remix or evolve earlier ideas. These short rounds (5–10 minutes) can help move the session forward without losing energy; plus, they can bring potential breakthrough solutions closer into view so team members can recognize powerful aspects of them.
Take photos or scan sketches; don’t let anything fall into obscurity. Use dot voting, affinity mapping, or team discussion to select top ideas. Then, transition the best ones into wireframes, prototypes, or digital mockups for testing.
In this video, William Hudson: User Experience Strategist and Founder of Syntagm Ltd., explains how wireframing helps you plan a website or app’s layout before moving into detailed design.
Picture this: you’re about to embark on an ideation session; you’ve got a good fund of user insights after conducting solid user research and have defined the user problem you need to address. Congratulations; you’re now ready to head into that vast territory where great ideas “live.” This is where you and your design team can, for example, harness the power of brainstorming, cast your minds wide, and find hordes of ideas.
In this video, William Hudson explains how you can structure an effective brainstorming session that encourages creativity and collaboration.
However, before you get right into a traditional brainstorming activity, consider how the simple act of sketching might help fast-track your way to great design ideas. Instead of just talking or writing, you make rapid sketches to free the brain from linear thinking and tap into visual creativity.
The term sometimes appears as “sketch storming” or “sketch-storming,” too, but the concept’s the same: it’s to generate visual ideas fast, share them, and iterate as a group. Sketchstorming differs from traditional brainstorming in a few key ways, namely in how participants sketch individually before sharing and verbal explanation comes after initial sketching. Another distinctive feature: the format encourages lighthearted guessing and interpretation, which sparks conversation and reduces pressure.
Typically, you will use sketchstorming in the ideation phase of the design thinking process, once you understand the problem but before designing solutions in detail.
In this video, William Hudson shows you how the design thinking process helps teams understand users, redefine problems, and generate creative solutions that balance desirability, feasibility, and viability.
The benefits of sketchstorming include, as an overview, how it adds a burst of creativity, clarity, and collaboration to your UX design process while unlocking ideas you might well miss with traditional brainstorming or discussion alone. More specifically, sketchstorming:
Because they’re sketches, not detailed pictures, and are therefore quick, cheap, and disposable, you can explore many directions without spending time on visuals that may never ship. This lets you and your team pivot easily when something better emerges.
It’s easy to fixate on one idea too soon, a massive hazard that can take you down the wrong design avenue entirely. Conveniently, sketchstorming helps you resist that, and you create and compare multiple ideas before choosing the best ones. That way, you’re more likely to find unexpected gems in the pool of pictures you all generate.
Seeing someone else’s sketch helps you understand how they think, and in a more accessible manner than words might transmit. It’s a fast way to uncover assumptions and align around design goals. The group discussion that follows each sketch adds valuable context, and it often improves the idea, shaping it into something far more useful, and desirable.
Because the sketches come out rough and fast, people who don’t see themselves as “artistic” can still contribute and not feel restrained. It also can make cross-functional collaboration, between different teams and stakeholders, easier because of that. The playful format helps everyone feel comfortable throwing out ideas without fear of judgment keeping them back.
Sketchstorming sets you and your team up for better decisions later, as you can pick out the most promising-looking path to pursue. Instead of refining one idea too early, you get to explore many and then refine the most promising ones. This makes for a smarter investment of time and resources as you move toward testing and prototyping, and that’s where you’ll find out how well the ideas you generated via sketchstorming can solve users’ problems and even delight them.
In this video, Alan Dix: Author of the bestselling book “Human-Computer Interaction” and Director of the Computational Foundry at Swansea University, explains how starting from well-informed design ideas, then iteratively prototyping and testing with users, helps you refine solutions intelligently.
Sketchstorming belongs early in the UX design process; after you’ve gathered insights but (crucially) before you’ve committed to any one idea or direction. Since it helps you and your team explore many solutions quickly, it’s especially important when ambiguity is still high and you need creative thinking to come into play and light the way ahead.
Before you take off high into the “skies” of ideation, though, you’ll need a solid “runway.” And you build it on sound research and clear insights and grasps of user behavior, user needs, and the many realities users might face in their various contexts. In the empathize and define phases of design thinking, for example, you gather research findings and use them to find actionable insights. User personas, needs statements, and design challenges prove especially helpful on that note, and personas are particularly essential to help you communicate what users really need.
In this video, William Hudson explains how personas help teams focus on real users and design solutions that truly meet their needs.
Once you’ve framed the problem, often with a “How might we” question, you’re ready to sketchstorm. For example, consider this one: “How might we help users compare plans without feeling overwhelmed?”
In this video, William Hudson explains how to turn design problems into actionable “How might we” questions that inspire creative solutions.
Here’s how to get the most from your sketchstorming sessions:
Use clear design prompts: Vague goals lead to vague sketches, so set a clear, focused challenge upfront and know the direction to head in.
Timebox everything. Keep energy levels high, avoid overthinking, and don’t let sessions drag on needlessly.
Use pens instead of pencils. Bold lines are easier to see and prevent erasing; while nothing should be “set in stone” at this stage, design-wise, it’s important to examine the ideas that come at first and explore their potential.
Keep sketches rough. Focus on concepts, not artwork; perhaps have a “no prizes for neatness” rule, as long as the sketches make sense.
Include diverse roles. Bring in developers, product managers (PMs), or even customer support; more perspectives can translate to better ideas.
Create a safe environment. Encourage participation from all roles, not just designers.For example, business stakeholders or marketing team members might sketch excellent design ideas that can level up your product.
Limit group size. For an ideal number, 3–7 people makes great sense for rich discussion without crowding.
Hear from everyone. Use facilitation tools like time limits or round-robin sharing to give everyone space and keep one or two voices from dominating the proceedings.
Document everything. Even “bad” ideas can spark something useful later (and, in fact, the bad ideas technique can work as a wonderful way to ideate towards the best potential solutions).
Define next steps. Don’t let ideas sit; they’ll die if nobody captures and acts on them. End your session with concrete plans so you can turn top sketches into testable designs.
For example, consider how sketchstorming might help a team redesign a banking app, where they run a 15-minute session. Each member draws different ways to show transfer steps, fee previews, and confirmation flows. One person sketches a drag-and-drop transfer metaphor; another draws a voice-controlled assistant. Pretty soon, they’re well on their way to a solid path forward for the redesign. And, after posting and sharing, the group identifies two strong ideas and does a second sketch round to refine them. One of these can become the basis for an interactive prototype tested with users later that week.
Overall, sketchstorming helps teams stay nimble, open-minded, and collaborative as they draw on creative powers that anyone, no matter how “undesignerly” they might think they are, can tap. Even with all the digital tools available, nothing beats pen and paper for raw idea generation. That’s because it breaks down complexity, sparks dialogue, and moves your project forward before you get caught up in details.
Most importantly, sketchstorming keeps UX design human and therefore that much more in tune with the goal: serving human users and their real-world needs. It invites everyone to think visually, share openly, and build solutions together: a signature not just of good design but good teamwork, too. Because sketchstorming helps you uncover better ideas faster and build a strong foundation for user-centered design decisions, it (perhaps paradoxically) gives you a “rock” to stand on rather than get lost in creative “whirlwinds.” Whether it’s to solve a new challenge or reimagine an old one, sketchstorming helps you search wide, see more, together, and chart out promising paths forward once you’ve cut through mists of distraction.
Get right into the heart of your creative engine in design through our course Creativity: Methods to Design Better Products and Services.
Enjoy a vast wealth of insights about the power of sketching in design and more, in our Master Class How to Become a Visual Thinker with Sketchnoting with Mike Rohde, Designer, Teacher and Illustrator.
Discover why sketching and good design go hand-in-hand, in our article Make Your UX Design Process Agile Using Google’s Methodology.
Sketchstorming replaces spoken or written ideas with quick drawings. While regular brainstorming relies on conversation or lists, sketchstorming transforms thoughts into visuals that can reach others in ways that words mightn’t. Designers sketch ideas instead of just describing them, which makes abstract thoughts concrete.
The sketchstorming method taps into spatial and visual thinking, which helps teams see connections they might miss in words. When participants sketch, they can externalize their thinking and avoid getting stuck in long discussions. Plus, it reduces misunderstandings, as what’s sketched is easier to align on than vague descriptions.
Discover the wider realm of brainstorming to uncover further ways it can help you land on valuable insights and pathways to effective design solutions.
Sketchstorming boosts creativity, speeds up ideation, and creates shared understanding. When you sketch instead of talk or write, you think visually. This helps surface ideas that words might miss. Visual thinking activates different brain areas, so allowing you to explore more freely. Sketches can reveal ambiguity instantly, too; if an idea looks unclear on paper, it needs work. Unlike words, sketches show rather than tell, so everyone can interpret and discuss them more easily. This builds alignment faster.
Another plus is how sketching levels the playing field: anyone can draw basic shapes to explain an idea. And because you produce something tangible, it’s easier to organize, review, and build on later. For teams who are working under time pressure, sketchstorming can turn fuzzy ideas into actionable concepts quickly and effectively.
Explore what creativity in design involves and how it’s the wellspring for every great design idea around and those you have yet to find when you get creative.
No, not at all; sketchstorming works best when everyone feels free to draw, regardless of skill. It’s about communication, not art. Simple shapes, stick figures, arrows, and icons, however “basic” or “scruffy,” are enough to express most ideas. In fact, when people sketch quickly and simply, the focus stays on the idea, not the quality of the drawing. That’s the whole point of sketchstorming: to generate ideas fast and visually. Overly detailed drawings can actually slow the process and intimidate others.
Encouraging low-fidelity sketching ensures broader participation and prevents perfectionism. Plus, visual shorthand like boxes for screens or lines for user flows helps everyone grasp complex concepts faster. So, instead of needing drawing talent, sketchstorming just requires a willingness to share ideas visually in a quick and rough format: ideal for teams whatever their “artistic ability” levels are.
Get more into, and out of, the practice through our article Learn How to Use Sketching as an Ideation Method.
Start by defining a clear problem or challenge. Give your team context, constraints, and a time limit, as this focuses their creativity. Supply sketching materials like paper, pens, sticky notes, or tablets. Begin with individual sketching to let everyone generate ideas independently. Then, move on to sharing and discussing the sketches as a group.
Encourage quick iterations and build on each other’s visuals. Keep the atmosphere light and judgment-free to support risk-taking. After sharing, cluster similar ideas, vote on favorites, or combine concepts. Capture everything for review. Wrap up with next steps, such as choosing ideas to prototype. A sketchstorming session should feel energetic and productive; you want to walk away with concrete ideas, not just vague thoughts.
Find more avenues of productive design creativity and more in our article Introduction to the Essential Ideation Techniques which are the Heart of Design Thinking.
Start by asking “what if” questions or thinking about user pain points. Focus on the problem, then visualize potential solutions, even if they’re rough. Break down ideas into parts like layout, interaction, or user flow, and sketch each piece. If you’re stuck, use prompts like “how might we” to spark ideas. Think in terms of actions: what does the user see, touch, or do? You don’t need full solutions, only key screens or moments.
You can remix known solutions, too. Draw inspiration from apps, websites, or patterns you’ve seen. Or combine two unrelated ideas to spark new thinking. And, a key point, don’t aim for perfection. You’re after volume and variety, not beauty. So, sketch messy, fast, and broad; you can refine later. The more you sketch, you might just find the easier ideas will come.
Dig deeper into a powerful source, the “How might we” question, in our article Define and Frame Your Design Challenge by Creating Your Point Of View and Ask “How Might We.”
It’s wise to keep the group between 3 to 7 people. Small teams spark more interaction without overwhelming the process. With fewer than 3, though, you lose diverse input. With more than 7, sharing sketches can take too long. If you need more participants, break into smaller groups and reconvene later. This size balance ensures everyone contributes and ideas circulate efficiently.
Diverse roles, like designers, developers, and stakeholders, add valuable perspectives, especially in early ideation. But make sure everyone understands that sketchstorming isn’t about drawing skill. Set ground rules that prioritize idea quantity over polish; this keeps people engaged and confident to share. With the right mix, a small group can generate a wide range of concepts, critique them constructively, and move toward effective solutions faster.
Find out where creative efforts lead to and what to do in our article How to Select the Best Idea by the End of an Ideation Session.
After the session, display all sketches on a wall or digital board. Group similar ideas by their theme, function, or user need. Use affinity mapping techniques: let participants help cluster related sketches to uncover patterns. Add labels to each group to clarify the common idea or problem. Then, prioritize. Ask the team to vote on which concepts are most promising using dots or stickers.
You can tag sketches by feasibility or impact, too. For digital sessions, some tools work very well to organize sketches visually. Capture everything; take photos or digitize sketches so nothing gets lost. Summarize key takeaways and decisions in a follow-up doc. Organizing sketches helps teams move from raw ideas to actionable directions and gets everyone on the same page about what comes next.
Get more out of your creative design sessions with our article What is Ideation – and How to Prepare for Ideation Sessions.
Use sketchstorming early in the design process, especially during ideation. It works best when your team needs to explore many ideas quickly. For example, after user research, sketchstorming helps turn insights into potential solutions. During design sprints, it fits perfectly in the “diverge” phase to generate options before converging on a concept. It’s also useful when teams hit a creative block or need to align visually on a concept.
Sketchstorming offers a great means to keep momentum high and encourage fast feedback loops. You can revisit it anytime you need to reframe a problem or explore alternatives. And, because it’s fast and low-cost, it’s easy to run multiple rounds throughout a project. In short, sketchstorming is a go-to method for rapid, visual ideation.
Understand more about how a solid grounding in user research serves as the best “runway” from which to take off and soar high into the space where you can find novel, innovative, and great ideas.
Start by lowering the barrier to entry. Emphasize that artistic skill doesn’t matter; clarity of idea does. Give everyone a quick demo showing how basic shapes, arrows, and stick figures can communicate big ideas. Provide templates or simple sketching frameworks like grids, wireframes, or flow maps.
Use warm-up exercises to break the ice and help people feel comfortable sketching. Frame the session as a creative collaboration, not a drawing competition. Encourage questions and support diverse perspectives; remember, non-designers often bring fresh, valuable insights.
Let people describe their sketches if they feel uncertain. And mix teams so experienced sketchers can model the process. Create a safe, playful environment and you’ll help everyone contribute meaningfully, regardless of their role or background, and so make sketchstorming richer and more productive.
Explore more about sketches in UX/UI design and come away with further insights that can prove valuable in ideation sessions and beyond.
Embrace conflicting ideas, as they often signal strong engagement and creativity. First, give each idea space. Let people present their sketches without interruption. Then, ask clarifying questions to understand each viewpoint, being sure to focus on the “why” behind each concept.
Encourage comparisons: what are the pros and cons? Use structured critique tools like “I like, I wish, What if” to keep feedback constructive. If two ideas oppose each other, consider hybrid solutions.
Sketchstorming thrives on iteration, so encourage the team to remix or evolve concepts. Let the group vote or rank ideas based on shared goals like usability, feasibility, or impact. Document all suggestions, even the ones you don’t pursue now. Conflict, when it’s managed respectfully, pushes teams to think deeper and produce stronger solutions.
Find a treasure trove of helpful insights by checking out workshops in UX/UI design.
Use digital whiteboards to simulate in-person sketching. Start with clear instructions and set up shared templates for people to sketch into. Provide a sketching warm-up and remind everyone that perfection isn’t the goal. People can sketch on paper, then upload photos, or use built-in drawing tools. Breakout rooms help small groups ideate and then regroup to share.
Timebox each phase, including individual sketching, sharing, and discussion, to keep energy levels high. Encourage everyone to respond with emojis, comments, or votes. Record the session, with participants’ consent, or capture screenshots for documentation. Use follow-up boards to organize ideas and plan next steps. With the right tools and facilitation, remote sketchstorming can be just as dynamic and inclusive as in-person sessions.
Physical distance isn’t a barrier to ideation, but explore our article 14 Barriers to Ideation and How to Overcome Them for important insights on what is, and what to do.
Curate the strongest ideas and show how they connect to user needs or business goals. Group similar sketches and walk stakeholders through the evolution of thinking. Include quick explanations with each sketch: what problem it solves, why it matters, and how users might experience it.
Use visuals to your advantage: instead of just talking, let the sketches do the storytelling. Highlight the top-voted or most promising ideas. If possible, link them to next steps like prototypes or testing plans.
Keep the presentation focused and structured, and avoid overwhelming your audience with raw sketches. Instead, frame the output as part of a creative process that reflects user-centered thinking. This helps stakeholders, who think in bottom-line terms and return on investment (ROI), see the value of early ideas and support future development.
Find out more about how business stakeholders see things so you can access them better, particularly in terms of Return on Investment (ROI).
Elsen, C., Häggman, A., Honda, T., & Yang, M. C. (2012). Representation in early stage design: An analysis of the influence of sketching and prototyping in design projects (Paper No. DETC201270248). In Proceedings of the ASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (Vol. 7: 9th International Conference on Design Education; 24th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology) (pp. 737747). ASME. DOI:10.1115/DETC201270248
This study investigates the interplay between sketching (including what the authors call “sketchstorming”) and prototyping in early-stage design teams (graduate design courses). They found statistically significant trends that suggest that in certain constrained design contexts, the quality of notion-generation (via sketching) matters more than just the quantity, and that early prototyping should begin as soon as feasible during the design process.
This is influential because it provides empirical evidence for how sketchstorming (here used to refer to intense sketch‐based ideation) functions within a team design context, linking timing, representation and outcome. It helps bridge ideation theory (sketching) with practical design education and process guidelines.
Börekçi, N. A. G. Z. (2016). Visual thinking styles and idea generation strategies employed in visual brainstorming sessions. In P. Lloyd & E. Bohemia (Eds.), Future Focused Thinking – DRS International Conference 2016, 27-30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom. DOI:10.21606/drs.2016.147
This paper studies 369 sketch ideas generated in three 635 visual brainstorming sessions by 25 participants given the same design brief. It analyses what kinds of sketch styles, annotation styles, idea-generation strategies (e.g., analogies, usage-context, themes) and group‐dynamics were in play. The result: four “profiles” of idea-generators were identified, and the influence of peer visual representation on individual sketching emerged. This is influential in sketchstorming research because it provides fine‐grained insight into how sketch-based ideation actually occurs in groups: not just “generate many ideas” but how the visual thinking and representation styles shape the ideation process.
Yang, M. C., Cham, J. G., & Epstein, D. J. (2007). An analysis of sketching skill and its role in early stage engineering design. Journal of Mechanical Design, 129(5), 476482. DOI:10.1115/1.2712214
Although not using the word “sketchstorming”, this study investigates how sketching ability (in terms of visual recall, rendering and novel visualization) correlates with design performance in early-stage engineering design. They found positive correlations (e.g., quantity of sketches with certain sketching skills) but also that higher quantity did not always correlate with better mechanism visualization skill. The significance lies in the linkage of the sketching process (which sketchstorming depends on) with design outcomes and how sketching training influences ideation. It gives foundational grounding for thinking about sketchstorming sessions: it’s not just “get many sketches” but the skill and representation matter.
Buxton, B. (2007). Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design. Morgan Kaufmann.
Bill Buxton’s book is a cornerstone in the user experience design field, introducing the crucial distinction between “getting the design right” and “getting the right design.” It emphasizes sketching as a rapid ideation method that facilitates better design conversations and decisions early in the product development cycle. Buxton appeals to both designers and non-designers (like product managers and engineers), urging them to embrace sketching as a way to explore possibilities, test ideas, and build shared understanding. Its blend of theory, practice, and real-world application makes it indispensable for anyone serious about human-centered design.
Gray, D., Brown, S., & Macanufo, J. (2010). Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rule-breakers, and Changemakers. O’Reilly Media.
Gamestorming is an influential toolkit of over 80 structured activities, many involving sketching, mapping, and diagramming, to enhance team collaboration and creative problem-solving. Developed from techniques used at Apple, Google, and other innovation leaders, it provides a powerful framework for idea generation, decision-making, and system exploration. The book is especially valuable for facilitators and team leaders aiming to boost engagement and visual communication in meetings or workshops. Its practical orientation and visual thinking emphasis make it a favorite among sketchstormers and design thinkers.
Brown, S. (2015). The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the Power to Think Differently. Portfolio/Penguin.
Sunni Brown’s The Doodle Revolution dismantles the myth that doodling is idle or unproductive. With engaging anecdotes and neuroscience insights, she repositions doodling as a legitimate and powerful cognitive tool for idea generation, communication, and innovation. Brown shows how visual notetaking and spontaneous sketching can unlock new ways of thinking, break mental ruts, and improve memory and comprehension. Especially relevant for sketchstorming, this book is a call to reclaim visual expression in work and education, and a how-to guide for making doodling a part of everyday problem-solving.
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