Abstract:

Starting from the central properties of sticky notes (paper-based, small, colorful and sticky) the present work analyzes how these simple properties can be used to enhance the product sketching in the design process during the educational path of BSc in Product Design.

The most conventional approach in sketching is using sticky notes as a sketchbook itself, keeping doodles within the paper boundaries and using it as a starting point of the product shape.

This work aims to describe a different point of view, an unusual way of using sticky notes in design practice, starting by the exploration of their main features: paper-based as sketch support (with any type of tool, from pencils to markers to watercolours); small as portable (it can be carried in your pocket, along with a sketchbook); colorful as emphasizer (emphasize some parts or to semantically distinguish different concepts); sticky as versatile (remount ability together with its “independence” -no need of glue or clips- allows extreme flexibility in the creative process). In addition to these features, the semi-transparency enables students to work on overlapping drawings.

So in this work will be described two innovative ways of using sticky notes during the educational path of BSc in Product Design: Highlights and Choices.
In the Highlights function the color properties are mainly used to highlight parts of the drawing, to color the drawing itself or to make it emerge from the background.

The Choices function highlights the possibility of being able to stack several sheets to give formal alternatives, while maintaining the possibility of exploring them all at the same time. Alternatively, the use of sticky notes as a Choices function can illustrate a transformation (movement, opening…) of the product, without altering the main drawing.

The new technique described was investigated within some courses of the BSc in Product Design at the Politecnico di Milano University. The research was carried out by providing specific exercises according to the sketching uses within the design process.

Therefore in this work we suggest a slightly different but disruptive way to use the well known characteristics of sticky notes, going beyond and throughout the paper boundaries, so that sticky notes will be at the same time media and tool in the sketching phase of the design process.

Keywords:

Sketching, sticky note, industrial design, sketchbook, drawing.