Alrighty, here’s one more “lens” thing to throw at you today.
In UX Collective, Daleen Rabe says that a “designer’s true value lies not in the polish of their pixels, but in the clarity of their lens.” She means our point-of-view, how we process the world:
- The method for creating truth
- The discipline of asking questions
- The mindset for enacting change
- The compass for navigating our ethics
The spec, as she calls it, is the designer’s way for creating truth. Others might call it a mockup or wireframe. Either way, it’s a visual representation of what we intend to build:
The spec is a democratic tool, while a text-based document can be ambiguous. It relies on a shared interpretation of language that often doesn’t exist. A visual, however, is a common language. It allows people with vastly different perspectives to align on something we can all agree exists in this reality. It’s a two-dimensional representation that is close enough to the truth to allow us to debate realistic scenarios and identify issues before they become code.
As designers, our role is to find the balance between the theoretical concept of what the business needs and what is tangibly feasible. The design spec is the tool we use to achieve this.
