Try so Hard to Make the Pieces all Fit
I've been reading an autobiography of John Charles Frémont, an American explorer, military commander, and politician from the nineteenth century. Frémont would lead five expeditions to explore the North American continent over the period of about a decade, including trips to the Oregon and California coasts, the Wind River Range, and the immense Great Basin. He was also one of the first white men to explore and document the Great Salt Lake and Ogden Valley.
Frémont was known for being exceedingly meticulous and exact in his documentation of his expeditions. Throughout his travels in the Western United States, Frémont took detailed notes on everything, including topography, climate, soil, and water, indigenous people, and flora and fauna, to name a few. Because of his commitment, his notes, journals, and maps were widely used by the United States Government and migrants from all over the world during the 19th century Western migration.
So, what does a 19th-century explorer have to do with design and creativity? And, how in God's name does JVD intend to tie this into what we do as content creators and designers?
Most creatives relish the chance to create something that improves people's lives. We jump at the chance to create interfaces, new products, and bold imagery and content, and we will painstakingly spend hours making sure everything looks and behaves the way it should for our users. However, as joyful as it is to create an amazing experience, it is equally vital to document how we got there and where we are going.
Design documentation makes it simple for anyone to understand how your design decisions will meet the needs of our users and business requirements. It encourages more conversations about the design, making it better suited to the demands of people and businesses.
When we make documentation a vital part of our Design Process, we:
- Set a single source of truth: The thorough documenting of every phase of the creative/design process prevents the possibility of misinformation.
- Provides direction for future designs: Documentation assists in giving information on what was executed correctly so you can reproduce it, ultimately helping in the improvement of your design process.
- Motivates and empowers: Effective documentation provides a high-level story about the product and motivates team members to believe in the vision.
- Build and maintain team collaboration: Documentation bridges the gap between project stakeholders by presenting the design process and reasons behind decisions.
Documenting our work is not always easy. Especially when many projects involve multiple departments, resources, and are spread out over a long period. Yet, it is crucial to the Design Process, since a lack of appropriate documentation can result in confusion throughout the process.
We need to ensure that our documentation is actionable and useful for everyone involved in the product's lifecycle, not just the design team. To do this, we must document our projects from beginning to end, from the preliminary stages through delivery of the product.
There is no single way to create documentation, and it may differ depending on the product team, but it is a crucial phase in the design process because it directly affects the final product.
Much like John C. Frémont's detailed and extensive documentation through his maps and journals, which helped hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals make the decision to migrate to the West throughout the 1800s. We must ensure that documentation is a key component of the design and creative process because good documentation ultimately helps our design teams make better decisions, resulting in better products for our users.
JVD
The newsletter title for this month is based on a linefrom the Nine Inch Nails song "The Big Come Down" on the 1999 album"The Fragile".