Rethinking Sketching Role in Nowadays Design Process

Abstract

Since everybody is typing on computers and tablets, should we maybe focus upon typing rather than writing? Questions like these make explicit not only a change in culture but also how to deal with new technologies in a rapidly changing society. The question entails much more than typing versus handwriting. Learning how to write is learning how to organize and form thoughts and ideas on a sheet of paper, through a brain process. Handwriting connects thinking and doing which is an inherent part of mankind. We can raise similar questions regarding freehand drawing within design education. Once, physical drawing and sketching ruled all design curricula, because at that time there was no alternative. However, nowadays, with the several options new technologies can offer, we must reconsider the several functions of hand drawing within the design process. Designers conceive and develop solutions for problems that are of different nature. Sketching can be an operative support for problem solving and critical analyses during the design conceptual process. This research intends to investigate if the nowadays wide use of the new technologies does not invalidate the important role played by sketching as a stimulating instrument for generate new ideas and as a critical verification of the several hypotheses. Sketching survival facing new technologies is a main issue we want to discuss and investigate.