[beryilma]

This is UI theory gone wrong. The idea that users will give feedback more freely when something looks unfinished is at best a non-validated theory.

This used to work with actual paper prototypes. But going the extra length to make UI designs look hand-drawn, when the users know full well they are computer generated is just busy work.

Showing the users what the actual design might look like works better and it actually captures important design choices such as shapes, colors, proximity, etc. that users care about.

I have been to many UX tests. Regardless of sketchy design look or not, the user will either have no problem providing feedback or they won't give useful feedback. It mostly depends on the person, not on what you show them.

[shalmanese]

I've found the opposite. When users feel like a lot of work has gone into something, they'll restrict their critiques to minor elements that seem easy to change because they are worried about causing you too much rework. Putting it in a sketch format makes it seem like it was easy to generate and gives them much more freedom to make more radical suggestions.

The key though is you also have to present them at least 2 - 3 very radically different versions of the same thing.

Each tool has a different purpose at different parts of the design stage. When I'm in blue sky ideation phase, I don't want users to be thinking about colors and proximity (although I do, even at that stage, care deeply about information hierarchy and hate sketch tools that make information heirarchy hard to design for). It's when I'm more in the narrowing down stage that I'll move to more higher fidelity tools.

[Oarch]

Thank you for this. I couldn't agree more about this being busy work. Which there seems to be a lot of in the PM world.

Personally I've found basic shapes and text boxes, or felt markers, infinitely more helpful at getting direct feedback from users.

[SteveDR]

Who is claiming that this style improves user feedback? From the OP, “these can be used for wireframes, mockups, or just the fun hand-drawn look.”

I like the style for its aesthetics alone

[Izkata]

Sketch-style UI isn't supposed to make people comment more freely, it's supposed to help stop them from focusing on the polish and instead look at the functionality. The last thing you want is "X and Y aren't aligned" or "Would color Z be better?" when the questions are still more like "Does this work?" and "Are these numbers correct?"

[samatman]

You're imputing a huge amount of intention found nowhere in the link.

> A set of common UI elements with a hand-drawn, sketchy look. These can be used for wireframes, mockups, or just the fun hand-drawn look.

You made up all the stuff about users and feedback. It isn't on the page and it isn't in the README.

[wouldbecouldbe]

It's great for showing work to clients, not users.

I've always gotten so much complaints when wireframes look too much as design, they will start making all kinds of comments about how it looks instead of focusing on structure.

I used balsamiq wireframes tool a lot for that reason.

[swiftcoder]

Nah, the magic here is that if you hand this to your CEO, he's not going to go "looks great, ship it!" and demand your hacked-up demo be in production next week.

[DontchaKnowit]

Counterpoint, it looks good.

[ghnws]

Where are you reading this?