The Stages of Visualization in Product Design

chris ebbert

The Stages of Visualization in Product Design


Your primary money-earning enabler as a designer is the generation of visualizations of what is inside your head. In the process of developing a product, there is ample opportunity for this, but the seasoned professional is known by his or her ability to deliver the right kind of visualization at the right stage in the development process. These visualizations are known by a myriad of different terms in the industry, all stemming from the dilemma of people from different backgrounds trying to sound cool when asking for them.

I’ve heard it all – “napkin sketch, chicken scratch, thumbnails, storyboards, scribbles, ideations, sketches, renderings”, and probably somewhere in the world, “atzquorkydoodle” or “whem-whem40”, maybe even with a short pantomime and a hop, too.

That was the bad news. The good news is that you don’t need to know what they are, as long as you can begin your interactions with your client or colleagues by telling them precisely what you will give them. Personally, I go by this list, which is reasonably expressive in a common-sense sort of way to clients and colleagues of all kinds of backgrounds:

1. Ideations
2. Sketches
3. Presentation Drawings
4. CAD Model


This is how I personally define these terms to my clients if they ask:

The ideations are something I do for myself, in my sketchbook or drawing log or whatever you want to call the little book you never show to any client, because that’s the one with the chocolate stains in it, and also possibly containing political ravings capable of alienating the odd reader from one-self.
If the client is sympathetic to creative processes, or is even a romantic soul who takes an active interest in how we really work, I might copy and digitally enhance the odd ideation out of my book and show it to them just to add a little, artistic flourish to the experience – at the end of the job, I might present it to the client in a frame, for laughs and to make them remember where we started. But if my client comes from the “products are designed by NASA in an ivory tower and come out of a machine fully polished” school of thought, I skip that step.


The sketches are usually the first thing I bill for, and they are not nearly as loose as the word may imply. I call them “sketches” only because it implies a degree of possible negotiation that is wise to allow for at such an early stage, unless you want to call the sketches “proposals” and risk parting ways with your client prematurely.
Because I want real money for my work, and usually at every point of delivery, I make sure those sketches make an impact.
First, I employ digital help to create a crisp layout with plenty of stats and data written all over it in the most appropriate possible font (never use a serif font – it clashes with the spirit of innovation).
The most appropriate possible font is usually the one your client’s stationery uses, by the way.
If your client has no stationery yet, as may be the case with many young companies or new business ventures, just use Arial or Tahoma, as they are very neutral (remember that this may be an opportunity to offer your services here to help develop a corporate identity package with stationery and logo, etc.).

To create my sketches, I may use one of my ideations as an underlay in a vector programme like Illustrator, where I trace them, using Bezier curve tools, to generate clean, black and white line drawings which may contain the odd speck of colour only to clarify certain things – like, where the on-switch is, which I may depict in red.

The sketches serve to spell out the full range of possibilities you foresee to address the design problem, and you should approach this systematically:
Decide that you will show your client a certain number of sketches (three to five is normal, ten is not unheard of, one hundred may sometimes be necessary).

Then decide what progression your range will show – will you go from “conservative” to “avant-garde”? Or from “boxy” to “organic”? “Serious” to “humorous”, “cheap” to “expensive”, “good” to “evil”? This is up to you. Choose wisely. Normally, your initial conversations with your client should give you a clue as to what may be called for here.
Try tuning into the client’s psychology and aspirations.


Whatever the sketches show, remember to be as neat and as systematic as you possibly can be, adding shadow where needed, pointing out materials by resorting to writing and illustration techniques, and indicating moving parts by drawing arrows which show a high level of sophistication (this may mean drawing them digitally, or in perspective).

The sketches should be extremely clear, simple, and serve to pin down the big picture. Avoid getting caught up in detail at this stage.

The sketches are usually A3 in size, and will be printed out commercially on heavy card stock when ready, and covered by a sheet of vellum attached with tape on the backside before given to the client in a tasteful folder. All this becomes the property of your client.
This will cost you money, but economizing here may cost you more money. Remember that your charges should recoup these costs. Investing in a $50 leather portfolio costs you nothing if you jack up your bill accordingly, but your client will feel treated in a first class way.
Just make sure what’s inside the leather case looks at least as good.


Your Presentation Drawings should be as pompous an affair as they sound. Get ready to part with a further $50 for another leather case, and possibly some bubbly.

Presentation Drawings are an emotional thing. They are supposed to unleash the client’s happiness hormones by showing in all glorious detail, full colour, what the new brainchild COULD actually look like. This is still negotiable, but a lot less so than at the sketching stage.

To arrive at a great set of presentation drawings, you need to make sure you and your client are in accord first. Your client will have seen your sketches, and picked out the ones he or she liked best. Based on those preferences, you would have developed further sketches, and met as often as necessary, to reach accord.

With that out of the way, you go away to create a full pictorial of the future product (= the presentation drawing), which will serve to conclude the concept phase of the design process and give you an opportunity to ask for your cheque and offer further cooperation in the shape of developing a CAD model, which represents the first stage of the prototyping process.



Personally, I approach my presentation drawings as follows:
Religiously heeding everything the client ever mentioned, I actually start building a rough CAD model already, which I recycle later. I do this because I believe there is a great opportunity for better credibility in it for you if your presentation drawings look a lot like your later and final CAD model, and the fact is that you can prevent many surprises by building to scale immediately. From that initial CAD model, I create depictions which have a certain, hand-drawn character, but whose perspective is flawless, and which can be turned and replicated with great ease to show functionality and colour. Simply render the CAD model in default lighting, then save it as a JPEG, and put it through the Poster Edge filter in Photoshop, which will give it a comic book style look.

Keep in mind that you can, and may even have to, show the object multiple times in different positions on the same page to achieve your objectives. If it is a CAD model already, this becomes quite easy.

The presentation drawing should try to answer all the questions someone else involved in the product’s development may ask:

• What is it made of?
• How do the parts come together?
• What will it look like when in use?
• What are the dimensions?
• Which way does that flap open?
• Is that a little light there?
• Which one is the on-switch?
• Where does the recharging plug go?

The more of these questions you can answer visually, the better. Otherwise, add writing. People love to read, and the combination of text and image is a winner every time.


The CAD model is easily the most important, the most precious, and the most useful of services we designers can deliver to our client. Many clients will also ask for CAD drawings, and may, in fact, often be better off with them instead of 3D models, which many companies cannot process further due to a lack of software expertise. CAD drawings are a jiffy to create from a CAD model, and any 3D modelling software will let you do this one way or another.
Make sure you go the extra mile and do a fully rendered presentation or even animation of your CAD model though, and show it to your client when you bring the CAD drawings. CAD models, animated or as a slide presentation, always impress tremendously, and doors may open for you because of it.

If the company does have software expertise for further processing of your 3D model though, you will need to make sure a few things have been addressed. Those in charge of CAD operations are often formally trained CAD operators or engineers, who expect certain conventions to be complied with. Your image and credibility will suffer if you ignore this. Always make sure you do the following things when building and handing over a CAD model:

• Know which software the client company uses, and save your model in a format which is compatible. If in doubt, IGES is usually a good format. “I could not open your file” is an avoidable nuisance email.
• Mind the coordinate system of your CAD system; “x” is the longitudinal axis of your object, and “z” in the positive is its height. Much confusion can be avoided by correct positioning. How often have I been asked “what is that thing you sent?”, and had to reply “it’s, um, your truck, upside down, with the front facing backwards”.
• Your model should be built with the x axis precisely on its centre spine. That is the only way you can build half models, and mirror them for full symmetry.
• Your model should start at “xyz=0”. In the case of vehicles, that point is the front wheel hub axis. If you don’t do that, chances are a CAD operator working on a different scale will never discover your model once imported into his system, because it may be floating light-years out there.
• To send out a CAD model for further development or prototyping, keep one handy that doesn’t contain all the lights and cameras and extra screens you built for rendering. They just confuse the hell out of everybody, because they show up as objects (I was once accused of being silly by building lots of little UFOs surrounding a caravan, which in fact where my rendering spotlights, and looked like flying saucers to another company’s earnest CAD operator).
• Make full use of everything CAD can offer you – namely to create photo realistic images of an object you’ve created. You can not really go too far here – think “illusion of reality”. Photo realism is possible in CAD. That’s exactly what you want. CAD is an amazing make-believe machine, and our best friend when it comes to making people accept our visions.