Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Aaron T. Travis

Aaron T. Travis — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 05:52:52 GMT

@Scott Stribrny

Thanks for the attribution. Your workshop sounds interesting. I’m curious to know more about it.

Aaron T. Travis — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 05:54:03 GMT

@JS The way to create sketchy stencils in Visio is to use custom line styles. Many of the sketchy stencils out there don’t allow themselves to be easily converted, so you have to use Visio’s custom line styles to make shapes look sketchy. I’ve created some screenshots to show you how, and also please refer to the tutorial listed in the table footnote. I use a couple of different line styles depending on the look I’m going for.

Once you have your sketchy line styles set up, you can right-click on any object and quickly change the line style to sketchy and back. You can also change the fonts quickly this way as well. If you’re using stencils, then changing the stencil should change all of the objects that are linked to it. Hope that helps.

Aaron T. Travis — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 05:54:07 GMT

@ Stephanie Thanks, here’s the correct link to the Visio custom line styles tutorial that I reference: http://visualsignals.typepad.co.uk/vislog/2008/03/creatin….

Aaron T. Travis — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 05:54:34 GMT

@Scott That sketchy web site design raises an interesting point. One of the goals of sketchy wireframes (or wireframes in general) is to remove decisions about the look and feel until a later stage. However, there is always a chance that your audience will become attached to the look of the wireframe itself, and want to incorporate that into the design. Sketchy wireframes are definitely more interesting to look at than traditional wireframes, so perhaps there is a danger in making them look too good. If someone runs across this issue, let us know!

Aaron T. Travis — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 05:55:03 GMT

@Jane Only certain programs have the ability to convert sketchy shapes into traditional. Those are marked on the chart in the article with a “Full Support” circle under the column that says “Easy Conversion.” I’m hoping that we’ll see more sketchy support added to all of the mainstream wireframing tools, including InDesign and Omnigraffle, which don’t have native sketchy line support.