AI much? Use Paper to do better.

When I shared my design process a while ago, someone said this in the comments:

"By the time you're done with your colorful sketches, someone would've already prompted an AI and got a hi fidelity result"

That's is a really bad take. I mean really shortsighted!

When someone says they "design" fast, what it usually mean they make a template and sell it as a solution.

We're at exactly the tipping point right now

These "AI bros" think they're smart because they do things fast. What they fail to see is that it's a race to the bottom. When most people are able to do things fast, things get cheap.

And then cheaper.

My recent designs — for different products

I design on paper first

Not only I design on paper. I do 2/3 design stages on paper. And only when the time is right I jump into a design tool. In my case it's Sketch, so I like to joke that I go from a sketch to The Sketch.

I've been designing since 1998. And no, initially I didn't work on paper.

Everything changed around a decade ago, when I started getting some bigger clients (Fortune500 kind) at my agency. Companies like Viacom, Renault and the Banking industry shifted the way I look at running a successful project.

While there, I noticed some things that aligned with a more analog approach really well. And paid well too.

These clients were built different to most startups that need things cheap and fast.

And now I'm seeing the startups also loving the approach when they see it in action.

There are five main reasons why I still design on paper.

The fifth one directly ties to why I can charge my clients more for my work. But it's the fourth one that I actually think is the most essential to me personally. It makes you feel superhuman when designing. I love it!

But before we get to the points, let me show you my process. This will be done with a specific example. The LongevityDeck app I'm working on.

I often sketch out mind maps on the beach.

Design everywhere

I design everywhere. On the beach. On a train. In the woods. While charging my car. That first step is a rough idea sketching.

I have a separate notebook for that. This is just black pen on paper. Rough. Quick. Scribbly. Not pretty.

This is functionality ideas, quick wireframes, icon ideas. Anything that comes to mind.

It's about getting ideas out of my head quickly, as soon as I have an idea.

In the case of LongevityDeck I sketched out a couple of these ideas until I finally settled on what you see above. And that's enough for most people to jump into a design tool already.

But not me.

This is just half of the story.

I then take that one rough idea I believe worked best and redo it again. On paper. But this time I make it higher fidelity. I spend time on it.

Add colors. Highlights. Pencil shading. This is the part where most designers feel I'm wasting time. But you'll see what I mean when we get to points 4 and 5.

This card design went through seven iteration on the rough sketch level. But here I played with fidelity a bit more. I added red marker annotations to fully understand what's going on.

And the thing about these annotations is that sometimes when you write them, you realize things don't make sense. This is why I explain stuff to myself like that at this stage.

And then I design on the computer — that part we all know.

Let's go through the reasons why I do it and why you should too.

Reasons to use paper

1. Paper is low commitment.

You don't have to refine an idea if it's bad. Put multiple down, quickly jump from one to the next. Iterate very fast. No need to refine an interface that may not make sense at all.

Or an app icon. Take a look at these ideas I had. It went from one to the other, then back, and I arrived at something that finally makes sense.

I had multiple ideas before I found one I wanted to explore more with colors and pencil.

2. Paper is big-picture thinking.

I do mind maps a lot.

It's connecting ideas together into groups and annotating their relations. This gives me MUCH better ideas than trying to add a button in a design tool.

Some of these ideas led to breaking some of my own rules / concepts with great results.

Why do I use colors on the mindmap? Sometimes it's organizational. I colorize relevant elements in a similar way. But sometimes it's just letting myself go and adding colors seemingly at random. That's because coloring within the box confines gives me time to think.

And switching the mental state like that often leads to crossing out an entire box because it doesn't really work.

Those "a-ha" moments often come while adding color.

When an idea strikes I just take notes.

3. Paper is available.

Whether you're online or offline, you can always design on paper.

I have my rough sketch notebook with me at all times. When chilling at a beach with no cell reception and no internet I can pull it out and design.

I use these little sticky loops that hold the pen in place. Easier to carry, less excuses not to use it.

But all these pale in comparison with the next two reasons.

4. Neuroplasticity

If you take time with a higher fidelity paper sketch it helps your brain. It forms new brain connections. You're getting smarter. (well, sort of).

And those new brain connections are perfect for creative tasks.

The alternative? It's kind of scary.

When you just prompt AI your brain kills some brain connections because you're not fully engaged in the process. You just wait for it to happen without you.

Instead of a designer, you're like an observer. At best, someone who's playing an interactive movie.

That makes your brain really lazy.

And that lower brain activity stays with you. It adapts to less creative work. Less problem solving. And would you blame it? We naturally adjust to the circumstances.

If you outsource your brainpower, the brain uses less power.

Paper is more active.

Paper with coloring and highlighting and annotating is the most active. I add colors not only to make it look nice, but because switching modalities from sketch to color to highlight to shading trains your brain.

It's like brain exercise. It gets more powerful when it does the heavy lifting. All pun intended.

Explaining things at meetings is perfect with paper

5. Selling value

Clients pay me more because of my process too. There are a couple of reasons for this.

For one thing, many clients now assume designer works like this:

Types a prompt to AI: here's a client brief, make me a design. Do it in 5 minutes.

Meaning they feel you're not really doing much yourself. Showing them your entire process changes that. They start to respect your work again. And with respect comes money.

But there are also other reasons. On real life meetings you can sketch things, hand them out to the client so they can add some annotations, sketch in some of their ideas.

It's a collaborative environment with no screens. It's perfect.

It also allows for much better case studies because you can show the process in an engaging way and people understand how your ideas get formed.

It's more human and simply positions you as an expert. Showing that it's really your brain, not some computer or some AI doing the designing.

And that's a great way to stand out from the 99% of lazy designers that will have to compete on price.

It works for me. And it works for multiple great designers I know. Ones that are pushing out the best, real products into the world.