1. Start on paper
Paper is still the fastest way to get ten ideas for a screen out of your head. Fold a sheet into eight panels and draw one version of the screen in each, a minute apiece. Most will be bad. One or two will be worth keeping, and finding them took eight minutes instead of an afternoon in software.
Draw at the size of the device. A phone screen sketched on a whole sheet of paper tempts you to fit in more than the real thing can hold.
2. Photograph and link
This is the Connect-A-Sketch step, and it's easier than ever. Photograph each sketch with a phone, drop the pictures into a design tool, and draw hotspots over the parts that should be tappable. Figma, Penpot and similar tools all let you link one frame to another and play it as a prototype. Some dedicated paper-prototyping apps do the same from the phone's camera in one go.
Only link the path you want to test. If the question is "can someone save a recipe and find it again," the screens for settings and account deletion can wait. The prototype on this site's homepage links one recipe out of four, and that's enough.
3. Put it in front of someone
Give a person a task, not a tour: "You want to cook something tonight with what's in the fridge. Show me how you'd do it." Then stay quiet and watch. Where they hesitate, the design is unclear. Where they tap something that isn't linked, they expected a feature you haven't drawn. Small rounds of a few people each turn up most of the big problems, and you can redraw between rounds.
4. Raise the fidelity only when the flow holds
Once people get through without help, move to wireframes in a tool with real type sizes and spacing, for example Balsamiq for deliberately rough screens or a full design tool's wireframe kit. Polish comes last. A beautiful screen in a broken flow is still broken, and it's harder to throw away.
A comparison
| Step | 2009, with Connect-A-Sketch | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Draw | Paper or any design tool | Paper, a tablet, or any design tool |
| Get screens in | Scan or export, then upload | Phone photo straight into the tool |
| Link | Draw rectangles over each image | Hotspots or real components linked frame to frame |
| Share | A public URL per prototype and per screen | A permissioned link, plus an export that outlives the tool |
| Feedback | Comment window per screen or project | Comments pinned to a spot on the screen |
Beyond software
The method works for anything that happens as a sequence of steps where the order matters: a checkout, an onboarding email series, a museum visit, a kitchen during service. Sketch each moment, connect them, and walk someone through before the real thing happens. The case of planning the group photos at a wedding is a good example, because it can't be re-run if the order is wrong.