We have extensive applications for desktops, iPhone, iPad and every other major mobile platform there is. We have apps for to-do lists, meetings and management of various stuff.
They are all useful. However, they don’t completely displace the simplest of them all, pen (or pencil) and paper.
Rough work and scribbling
Pen and paper are only limited by your artistic skills and imagination. You can write whatever you want, however you want. You can even draw stuff.
There is no need to add a “new feature” to enable you to draw something new with your pen.
You may have the best wireframing tool to design web pages. But the same thing can be roughly done using a pen and a paper. Here, you’re just scribbling ideas. It’s your rough work.
If there is something wrong with your rough work, you can start afresh on a new page immediately.
Use specialized apps for fair work
This is where your ideas are a bit more formalized. This is where you stick up your design in your favorite wireframing app (if you use one at all), entering precise measurements.
Since it resembles your final work closely, you’ll be able to make fine adjustments here.
Pen and Paper are portable
No one stops you from scribbling. It doesn’t need charging. And it’s not bound by the latest development in input technologies.
You can carry it around easily too!
So, what workflow does that leave us with?
Here it is:
- Use pen and paper to scribble ideas as they come to your mind. If you have a logo, you can immediately draw a rough sketch without messing with some app. This is where you jot down the big picture.
- Use specialized apps to put your preliminary work into a more formal format. This is where you present your work as a proof-of-concept, making all the fine adjustments you need.
- Go on to create the real thing using your previous works as a basis.
