Work outside of design includes things like markup, producing screen design documents, maintaining coding guidelines, and project scheduling — various tasks (which, admittedly, every staff member handles) that all happen at the same time.

When you're always trying to keep an eye on the project as a whole, small design differences gradually start to feel like they don't matter. You start wanting an effect that impacts the whole project more than the design strength of the product itself. Still, this is a memo to myself so I don't forget that.

If it can't be turned into an action, it won't really work as a goal or a personal standard, so let me write that part down too.

1. Put every intention into words

Get rid of "just because" and "it felt right." Don't design anything that has no meaning. Even design elements needed for styling should have their "why is this necessary" and "what impression does this give" put into words (first, in your own head).

TODO: Write down the intention in the design data every time you do design work. TODO: Gather these points together and comment on them for each project.

2. Secure the time

Obvious, but hard. How much resource should be spent on design within a project, and how faithfully should markup reproduce it? To what level of detail should the design system be designed, and how much of that should be reflected in component design? Precisely the parts that can be done on autopilot are the ones where you should properly secure the time to design deliberately.

TODO: Clearly state the "design" man-hours in the schedule. Then log your actual working time.

3. Create new UI

Now that UI for smartphone-oriented web services and apps has matured quite a bit, people often say that making something completely unseen before is pointless, or that it's "reinventing the wheel." That's entirely true, but taking it at face value ends up producing a lump of "looks about right." Whether through combination or reinvention, create the optimal UI, and keep continually updating that standard of "optimal."

TODO: Keep a record in the data of where the crux of the design lies.

4. Think about the time axis

Also consider the invisible parts that involve time, like status, motion, and loading. Raise the comprehensiveness of the design comp so that nothing gets made by accident.

TODO: Always include hover, disable, touched, loading, and vacant states in the design data.

5. Commit to compositional quality

Just because we often build web services isn't an excuse to give up on the compositional quality of the visuals. Carefully craft screens that look beautiful. Don't lose that sensibility.

TODO: Keep looking for compositional references. TODO: Sketch out the compositional relationships between elements.

6. Give it strong ingenuity and identity

"Strong ingenuity" is a bit of a feeling-based thing, but I'd describe it as ingenuity that's versatile and stands on its own. That leads directly to identity. No matter how disposable something is, give it identity — even a small one.

TODO: First jot down the intention in the design data. Then evaluate how it was achieved.

With markup included, there's a lot to do, so I'd like the mental strength to really push through the details I might otherwise put off for later. It might be even better to build things like this into Figma templates.