Abstract

We have an opportunity to talk about how to document the design process, so we can share our learnings with the community and help other designers face some of the challenges of working remotely.

Documented design process and validations is a tedious work that often relies on personal meetings and only outputs the final result of the discussions. This makes it really difficult for remote people to get involved in the process and forces everyone to actually have a fixed schedule to meet together.

Goals

Provide a clear methodology for people to document their design process

Indicate the key benefits of using Product Design Docs

Engage with the audience by using story telling

Generate visual assets for the article to increase the depth of processing

Create document templates that people can just grab and use

Mention any source of inspiration so people can build on top of the article content

Solution

Here you can find the published version of the article.

S30

Proposal

Prepared an outline and sent it over to the team at Smashing Magazine to get a “go” or “no go” decision.

Expected Feedback

Use document comments for feedback

Impressions of the higher-level concept.

Suggestions for scope and ways to expand.

“Go” or “no go” decisions on feature elements.

Avoid nit-picks on grammar and copy.

S60

Proposals

Prepared an initial draft to express main rough ideas and get some feedback on the overall direction.

Expected Feedback

Use document comments for feedback

Nit-picks on grammar and copy

Suggestions of different ways to expand

Was the feedback from S30 addressed correctly?

Avoid “Go” or “no go” decisions about key project elements

Avoid impressions of the higher-level concept

S90

Proposal

Worked closely with the editorial team to fix typos, provide more clarity on the finest details of the article to make sure is both engaging and provides a clear value for the reader. Templates examples about the document must be provided at this point. Visual assets are also needed to make sure the story is compelling to the reader.