Interventions for teaching sketching skills and reducing inhibition for novice engineering designers

• We found that engineering students are reluctant to sketch.
• We propose 1) a training workshop to teach sketching skills to engineers.
• We propose 2) an art-based workshop to reduce student inhibition to sketch.
• We found that the workshops are effective, but require long-term practice.
• Advanced sketch skills (e.g. perspective) can temporarily increase inhibition.

This paper explores improving sketching skills and reducing the inhibition to sketch for student designers. In the first study, students were taught sketching skills through an in-class workshop. The effect was evaluated using a pre-mid-post test (n = 40). In the second study, students were led through art activities to reduce their inhibition to sketch. The effect was tested using another pre-mid-post test (n = 26). The first study found sketching skills increased, but declined with disuse. The second study found reduced inhibition immediately after the workshop, an increase after the sketch skills workshop, and a decrease over the semester. This suggests that sketch training and inhibition-reducing exercises are effective in the short term, but must be emphasized over time for a permanent change.