Fortunately, I participated in the formulation of design specifications when I first joined the department. It took about a month before and after. This blog post combines personal participation in the development of norms projects, focusing on: the importance of design norms, the timing of norms formulation, the formulation process and follow-up work to summarize and share.
Importance of design specifications
When the design director first called up designers to discuss the design specifications for the project, some designers proposed that “the specifications are just a gimmick for the company to show to the outside world”, which is more like reflecting a company’s visual image (VI). In fact, the product design specifications of Internet companies are not only used to promote the image. They are more used to use, simplify the development process, and make multiple products have a consistent experience. They are things that are implemented.
In the case that a department contains multiple product lines, the product design specification can best reflect its role at this time
Unified product user experience
Since the product managers in charge of each product line are not the same person, if the designers infiltrate each product group at this time, then the experience between the products will not make users feel that it is designed and developed by a department.
The wireframes given to designers by product managers of different product lines are very different. For example, to implement a filtering function, some use drop-down menus, and some use pop-up windows. Different interaction methods in the same situation, regardless of their respective pros and cons, will experience contradictions between the products themselves. There is a lack of communication between product managers, and the product team will basically design products according to the plan of the product manager, which results in differences in experience between products.
There are also differences in the design styles of designers on different product lines. Such as appearance size design, color matching. When there is no independent design group, the designers on the product line are all in their own hands and are directly responsible to the product manager, which further deepens the incoordination between products.
The product designer is not wrong, but lacks a bridge to coordinate and unify the various product lines. Through discussions among designers and consultations with product managers on each product line, a set of specifications is formulated to build this bridge, so that product designers have references and guidelines.
Convenient to design and develop products
In the process of formulating design specifications, a unified standard control library, page element size regulations, color scheme regulations, and visual style unified guidance will be formed. The designer can directly call the standard controls in the specification according to the functional requirements, and call different element sizes for design according to the information structure requirements. It is easy to output high-fidelity prototypes, which reduces the burden of thinking about interactive control selection and information layout during the design process.
Form filing and library
Like technical documents, products also need documents and specifications in terms of design. Due to changes in business requirements, design specifications will not stay the same. Record each design adjustment, the original intention and theoretical basis of the adjustment through the file record, which is convenient for future review and summary. When I first joined the department, I had neither product design specification documents nor standardized technical framework documents, and there was an interruption in the growth and inheritance of the product. Forming a simple and easy-to-read document specification is a manifestation of being responsible for the product.
Timing of the specification
The timing of the specification should be just right. Too early or too late will bring troubles and obstacles to product iteration.
It is too early to sum up a set of specifications after the product has just started or iterated only a few generations. At this time, the product only has the general development direction and basic functions, many subdivision functions are not perfect, and the overall product is not full enough. The specifications formulated at this time cannot be used for generalization and unification. As the product continues to improve, a large number of functional requirements will be added, and the specifications will also undergo major changes, increasing the burden of modification and adjustment of various departments. Such a large-scale revision of the specification itself loses the meaning of the specification as a guideline.
It is too late to formulate specifications after the product has matured. At this time, the product function and structural information organization framework of each product line has been finalized, and only occasional optimization and improvement of experience detail modification and auxiliary functions are added. The product technology framework logic, especially the front-end technology framework has been formed, and the technical personnel are also familiar with product interface design and interaction methods during the development process. If there is not much difference between products during the iteration process, it is okay. When the products are very different, the introduction of specifications will increase the cost of adjustment by many technical personnel and delay the launch of the new version.
If the department has both mature and just starting products, it will be more convenient for subsequent adjustments to formulate specifications in accordance with the design direction of mature products. Even if the specifications are issued late, it is much better than the lack of unified specifications within the department to make products inconsistent and inconsistent.
Design specification process
Although the design specification is only a few pages, it is the result of a condensed summary and is not achieved overnight.
Early attention to accumulation and induction
Designers should pay attention to real-time summarization and summary when designing the initial product renderings. The original files and exported files should be classified and sorted. The controls and modes used in the design process should be summarized in time. At the same time, the original intention of some interface design and controversial designs should be simply recorded. Point and wait. Timely summarize and lay a good foundation for the formulation of the later design specifications, otherwise it is easy to forget the original intention of the design, find the documents or the person in charge of the design and so on.
Summarizing meeting
When preparing to produce design specifications, it is necessary to convene designers on each product line to summarize and refine the design results. Such a meeting is both a discussion meeting and a decision-making meeting, so it takes a long time, but it is also a necessary meeting to formulate design specifications.
The specification can be divided into modules in advance, meeting discussions and resolutions can be carried out step by step, and different modules can be assigned to different designers to be responsible for summarizing. When encountering problems that are difficult to solve and conflicting with each other between products, the relevant product leaders should be communicated in real time. When some products require major style changes, they should be communicated in real time. The internal opinions of the design team should be unified and external support and recognition should be obtained.
Make
Before making hands-on production, designers must reach an agreement on the form and style of standardization. The designer makes the specification of his own module according to the results of the discussion and resolution of the meeting. Modules are divided into: color matching, icons, fonts, control size, control interaction, etc.
Aggregate and fine-tune
After summarizing the specifications of each part, revising the details and fine-tuning the layout, it can be released. In order to make the specification more convenient to spread and read, I personally suggest that it is more appropriate to present the specification in the form of a web page.
Standard
Good design specifications have clear levels and logic, which is convenient for other team members to find the corresponding content, and it is convenient for designers to improve the content of different modules in the future.
Good design specifications are highly simplified and generalized, unifying different design styles in the same situation into more adaptable, scientific and reasonable design styles, reducing many so-called special-case designs and cumbersome repetitive dimensioning. The team members involved in the design and development can directly call the appropriate design style based on the situation. Of course, there will be special scenarios in the design process, and special design styles not included in the specification are required. At this time, the designer must give a design effect drawing separately. When there are more and more special circumstances, it is necessary to consider integrating these circumstances and adding them to the existing norms.
Follow-up supplement
The norms are not set in stone. As business develops and demands increase, the norms need to be modified, added or deleted based on the original content. The drawback of the specification is that every time there is a major change, it will cause the corresponding adjustment of many product lines and multiple products, and even involve the modification of the structure. Carefully revise the specifications that have been formulated, and often adopt small changes and iterations to supplement the specifications.
Having a design specification does not mean that the team no longer needs a designer, nor does it mean that everyone in the team can use the specification components to piece together to output design renderings. Product design contains perceptual elements, and designers need to design and grasp the experience of the product through research and cognition. Specification is a tool and a ruler, which requires the flexible use and continuous improvement of design and development personnel to adapt to changes. Standards have an important role, but you should not use the norms to make the product dead or stiff.
