Before you even pick up your pencil to sketch your own design concept, pick up an everyday product that is near to you right now. It could be a computer mouse, a kettle, a stapler, a water bottle, a TV remote, or a small kitchen utensil. Don’t ask yourself if you think it is beautiful. Just turn the product over in your hand to find out how your fingers naturally fit around it, which part of the product feels heavier, where the product sits on the table and where it wants to be pushed, pulled, twisted and lifted. The first impression a product leaves on you is often more instructive than a beautiful sketch because industrial design is primarily about making useful products, not beautiful ones.
An observation should begin with the main mass. Ignore logos, colors and other details, and consider what is the main volume of the product. Is it a box, a cylinder, a triangular wedge, a soft-edged rounded rectangle or a combination of volumes? Is the product balanced and symmetrical, or does it have a more active and directional shape? A remote points in one direction to the TV, a handle is inviting the hand to grip, and the main volume of a kettle is usually balanced by the spout and handle. Knowing what basic volumes the main body of the product is made of gives you a starting point for building the body of your own idea so you’re not sketching a general outline and trying to put all your product parts on top of that outline later.
After you have observed the main mass of the product, find the main contact points. Think of where the user would press, hold, grip, rest, open or turn the product. A hair dryer has a specific handle angle that the hand is comfortable holding for the weight of the dryer. A lunch box has a rim around the edge that the hand is comfortable pressing on and a handle that the finger hooks onto when the user pulls the lid away from the tray body. The buttons on the side of the product should be visible enough to find but not so protruding that the user accidentally activates them with their fingers. Without doing an observation like this, beginner product designers will have great sketches that don’t really make much sense for the end user.
Instead of drawing a single design drawing, make a page with quick thumbnail sketches of the product from the front, top and side view. The key is that your sketches are very loose. You should also add small labels that describe the grip, seams, button placement, base area, open-close direction, round corners, part lines that explain where two sections of the product join and anything you think makes the product useful and beautiful. If a certain area is more rounded to make it comfortable to hold, add a label describing this and try to use this kind of descriptive vocabulary as you start to sketch and design your own product idea.
Try comparing two identical or very similar products. Try comparing two ballpoint pens, two water bottles, two pairs of headphones or two kitchen utensils. You should look for differences in overall proportion, how thick or thin they appear to be, the surface finish, visual weight and how they are handled. A taller, lighter-feeling water bottle has narrow shoulders to balance the weight in the body, and a heavier-feeling bottle has a wider base to support the body in the hand. The button placement on the remote can be easier to find because the buttons sit inside a specific area in the interface. Comparing two very similar products gives you a way to practice your skills by observing and identifying the design decisions.
Once you start sketching your own product idea, use the observations to inspire you to find a solution rather than a reference that you copy directly. Ask yourself what specific problem you want to explore. Do you want to try something that is easier to hold on the handle, a lid that is easier to find when you need to open it, or perhaps something that is more streamlined on a smaller scale. Sketch a few quick thumbnails with different product volumes without adding product parts on top. Try one with a wider main volume, one with a taller main volume, one that is softer in its shape, and one that has different contact points. Your goal is not to make a finished product but simply to see how you can change the volume, function and proportion of your product.
A sign that you are improving is how easily you can explain your sketch. Instead of saying “this has a modern look,” you should be able to explain how, for example, the surface around the edge is more rounded because the hand is more comfortable resting on the surface, and you can describe how the part line is visible so the user quickly knows how to open the lid. Being able to explain your sketch turns your idea into an early industrial design concept. As you start making new and more advanced drawings, take a moment to pause and think about how the product works and how the user interacts with the product. What part of the product is the user most likely to touch, press or hold? What part of the product needs to move? What part of the product looks like the weakest point? What part still lacks a good explanation? Once you answer these questions, you will be ready to create your next sketch.