Writing as design

Tools like Figma, InVision, and Adobe XD have made it faster and easier for designers to design and prototype. However, these tools do little to help designers decide which solutions will best achieve their goals and are best for users. Nor do these powerful new tools help teams identify and wrestle with the ethical implications of design solutions. Even if they don't mean to, designers can easily be seduced by these slick, powerful tools into "moving fast and breaking things" — a problem that will only get worse with the emergence of new AI-based design tools. 

This talk proposes using writing as an antidote to the illusion of premature design completeness that modern and emerging design tools risk engendering. The talk will discuss how to incorporate writing into a design practice to clarify intent, define solutions (and their potential implications) more precisely, and facilitate feedback from collaborators and stakeholders. It will also discuss when and how writing can most effectively be used within a design process, and how writing can facilitate remote design and distributed teams.

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