July 6, 2017
Newsletter

Let’s Talk About:

Let's Talk Documentation

Expecting a developer to interpret UX and design deliverables with no documentation is kind of like asking someone to cross a river with no bridge: it can be done, but it’s probably going to be ugly. Designs will be misinterpreted, team members will be frustrated, and extra time will be spent finding and fixing mistakes. At worst, designs flaws will make it through launch, negatively affecting the end users' experiences.

This kind of confusion can be avoided altogether when UX and visual designers create design documentation. Like many parts of the design process, there’s no right way — or even right time — to create documentation. Periodic Slack conversations, whiteboard sketches, and even massive spec docs delivered at the end of the design phase will all be the right tool at one point or another. How and when documentation is created isn’t what’s important — it’s the communication and understanding that happens as a result.

Read About How to Create UX Documentation Developers Will Love


Community Thoughts on Let's Talk Documentation...

  1. 1. In Search of the Design Documentation Unicorn “Documentation (and communicating intent) is a design exercise. Designers need to be great at this because it belies an underlying understanding of how design works. It may seem counter-intuitive, but the key to great documentation, like any form of communication, is listening.”
  2. 2. Content Modelling: A Master Skill “More and more I find that the content model is one of the most important content strategy tools at my disposal. It allows me to represent content in a way that translates the intention, stakeholder needs, and functional requirements from the user experience design into something that can be built by developers implementing a CMS. The content model helps me make sure that the content vision becomes a reality.”
  3. 3. 3 Steps to Bridging the Design/Development Gap “Now, you may be thinking, “This isn’t my job. I’m not a technical person. I’m the creative, not the developer or project manager.” True enough. But if you don’t document, you risk seeing your vision derailed”
  4. 4. A Guide to Successful Design Handoffs “A good product is a lot about the problem that you pick & the ideas that you implement. But a well-sorted & deliberate design-development process can play more than a handy role.”

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