Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Sketching in Hardware
Artists, engineers, designers, architects, and makers frequently start their
work with a simple sketch on paper. Putting the idea down as a sketch helps
by pushing something from being abstract towards something more con-
crete, more real. Sketching something out also helps you communicate your
idea to your peers and collaborators. But you don't necessarily need to use
a paper and pencil to create a sketch.
Having the power of a computer but the simplicity of Arduino development
tools means that there's less to stand between you and your idea for an in-
teractive object. It can help make the abstract idea a little more concrete. As
a tool, the Galileo is meant to help you prototype early and iterate often so
that you can get an idea of the look and feel of your project and refine it
without hassle. I like to call this “sketching in hardware,” a term I first heard
from Mike Kuniavsky, who organizes a yearly conference by that name. Ac-
cording to Mike, the notion of this term originated with Bill Buxton's work on
sketching in the realm of user experience design.
I don't want to be the one to stand between you and sketching in hardware,
so let's jump right in.
