Conceptual product design in digital and traditional sketching environments: a comparative exploratory study

In the field of product design, conceptual sketching involves not only the rapid creation of ideas, but also the delivery of high-quality drawings with specific aesthetic attributes and a conventional visual style. This paper argues that the workflows and creative output produced by digital sketching during conceptual industrial design activities are comparable, and in some cases enhanced, to those produced traditionally. We report a study where digital sketching was used as the primary conceptual tool to determine the extent up to which this method is equivalent to traditional techniques in an industrial design domain. Traditional and digital sketching data from a group of industrial design students were collected and analysed to determine the influence of digital technology on production and quality. Although creative dialogues between designer and sketch can occur in both traditional and digital media, our results suggest that digital sketching might aid in producing a higher quality output.