Comment by cosmic_cheese
7 days ago
As a dev that does a lot of his own design, I’ve never really understood the need to build a full fidelity reproduction of the layout systems a design is targeting. The limitations and considerations involved are deeply internalized and for the most part, I know exactly where designs tend to break and how to account for them. The layout system is effectively running in my head the entire time I’m mocking things up.
So while it’s nice to have tools to help with menial bits like correct spacing, getting every little behavior right in the mockup feels a lot like unnecessary busywork.
Naturally things are a bit different in a team setting, because it can’t be assumed that everybody involved has this level of knowledge/experience, but well… maybe it’s not crazy to expect designers to carry this set of skills, and it’s perhaps not a good thing for parties outside of design and engineering to be able to easily poke and prod at designs directly. Having the design team as a required intermediary helps sanity check changes.
I had my UX designer girlfriend read “CSS: The Definitive Guide” and it changed the way she looked at her job. She taught me Figma and it changed the way I look at my job, and hers.
Learn as much as you can. Specialization is for insects.
What did you learn about Figma that changed how you think about your work?
I advocate for learning as much as possible as well. It comes naturally with being self-taught. That said I think it’s also worth zooming out and giving things a look through a critical eye to ensure that the things we’re learning are necessary and worthwhile.
There are still a number of “old school” UI designers out there who’ve resisted trends and have staunchly stuck to a more traditional workflow, where they start out with a rough mockup made in e.g. Photoshop and then iterate the design alongside an engineer. It would be interesting to be in the room amidst a discussion between one of these traditionalists and a “new age” Figma-type UI designer.
> I’ve never really understood the need to build a full fidelity reproduction of the layout systems a design is targeting.
Well, you wrote why right before:
> As a dev that does a lot of his own design
You understand the whole, so you don't need lossy abstractions to connect the ends. When roles are specialized and people only understand part of the context in which they're working, they need ways to communicate about the whole thing.
Tools like Figma fill those sort of gaps, that tend to occur in organizations with dozens/hundreds of employees, with the need to quickly onboard frequent new hires, etc.