In our ongoing research into design excellence, we’ve come across an interesting correlation. The designers who are at the top of their game are mostly people who sketch.

Even though every designer we talked with had completely different backgrounds, training, and work habits, they all shared one common element—they sketched their work. In addition, they weren’t just sketching their designs. They were sketching their notes in meetings, their conversations with their co-workers, and their understanding of their design research. Sketching was a common medium for a variety of design-related activities.

In this issue of UIEtips, we look back at an article from a year ago. We take a tour of the different activities and the sketches we saw during our research. These sketches solve a multitude of important design problems and are key to becoming a design master. I’m sure you’ll find this as interesting as I do.

Read the article, Why We Sketch.

One of the most popular workshops at last year’s User Interface Conference was Good Design Faster. The workshop had a strong sketching component. Once again we’re offering this workshop, taught by one of its original creators, Brandon Schauer. On November 9 at the User Interface 16 Conference, Brandon will show you how to bring out innovative design ideas in record time. Explore Brandon’s workshop and the 7 other fantastic workshops at UICONF.com.

How do you use sketching in your work? Is this something new or something you’ve been doing for a while? We’d love to hear about your experiences below.