How I Approach Building Products: Starting on Paper Before Writing Code
Why sketching user flows with an ink pen on grid paper saves weeks of wasted frontend engineering and keeps the focus strictly on human outcomes.
✦ Rough pen-and-ink user journey map showing record validation states.
Modern development tools are fast, but their speed can be deceptive. It is very easy to jump straight into a React codebase or a Figma canvas, generate ten components, assemble a slick interface, and realize two weeks later that you built the wrong thing with great precision.
My rule for every project at Promacle—whether it is NuroVed, Actora, or client architectures—is that nothing touches code until it has survived on paper.
Paper is forgiving of thoughts but unforgiving of ambiguity. When you draw a screen by hand, you can feel when a user flow requires too many steps. If sketching the path from a patient's sign-in to their medical record review takes three separate arrows and cluttered margin notes, you already know the UI is bloated. You do not need twenty hours of coding to learn what an ink sketch can tell you in five minutes.
Furthermore, I evaluate interfaces based on human outcomes rather than engagement metrics. A good tool helps someone complete their task and leave. If a doctor has to stay on a screen longer than necessary, that is not 'high engagement'—it is operational friction.
Design is not decoration added after the engineering is done; it is the structural definition of how a human interacts with a computer.
If a doctor has to stay on a screen longer than necessary, that is not high engagement—it is operational friction.— Fazil Malek
What I Learned
Direct takeaways and practical principles recorded from this experience:
- 1
Paper reveals flow flaws faster than Figma
Physical sketching prevents getting bogged down in font pairings and color tokens before the logical flow is proven.
- 2
Measure human outcomes, not vanity dwell time
Software that respects human attention gets the user back to their real-world task as quickly and reliably as possible.
- 3
Architecture and design are inseparable
You cannot design a trustworthy user experience without knowing how the data model and network boundaries behave underneath.
Fazil Malek
Founder @ Promacle • B.E. Computer Engineering @ GTU
Indian entrepreneur and Computer Engineering student at Sal College Of Engineering backed by Gujarat Technological University (GTU). Founder of Promacle, builder of NuroVed, and footballer based in Ahmedabad.
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Why I Started NuroVed: Fixing the Small Fractures in Everyday Healthcare
The origin story of NuroVed and why Promacle chose healthcare infrastructure over easy consumer apps. A look at medical record fragmentation from Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Building While Being a Student: Managing Code, Classes, and Founder Mode
Reflections on pursuing a Bachelor of Engineering at Gujarat Technological University while running Promacle. Lessons on practical execution vs theoretical syllabi.