Parametric design. Next half step after Design in browser

    Browser Design - Parametric Design - Auto Design


    Начну с фразы Григория Бакунова, которую большинство выпустили из внимания, но я не мог проскочить мимо нее.

    «Произойдет вытеснение на рынок большого количество специалистов, которые в этот раз вместо того, чтоб рисовать дизайн, будут настраивать средства для построения автоматического дизайна»

    Это было упомянуто в контексте автоматического дизайна, что сразу приковало мое внимание. Детально, я пока слабо представляю техническую реализацию автоматического дизайна, разве, что несколько размытых мыслей, не подкрепленных технологиями. Но понятно, что это будет сложная, интересная и гибкая экосистема.

    We roll back a little. Literally a year and a half ago, mock-ups were a stumbling block. So, as the main problem, there was a difference in the display / behavior of the capabilities of the graphics editor and live code. Then many “true” designers, mostly project ones, switched to the “Design in a browser” side and the bar of logic began to grow at a fairly fast pace. All synchronized in terms. It has become clearer to communicate with interface specialists of different levels and different roles (in the interface process). Design in the browser itself is not a point of return, but it is just the starting point of a long journey.


    UI parameters


    After the browser thinking toggle switch worked for you, your brain seemed to be removed from the parking brake and having felt a sharp jump in the level of interface development, you crave something more, even more logical, powerful and technological. And you start to “gut” your interface, look for mutable and immutable parts, watch how they interact with each other, look for dependencies between them. And after the start of the dive comes the realization that the whole UI is the parameters.

    Accompanied by a terrible depression and spurting euphoria, your usual workflow collapses. The implementation of future projects is becoming hazy. But one thing you stably understand is that now not one entity you created UI will not be drawn / designed just like that. Since it should fit in well with the ecosystem. Of course, “there is never too much order,” but in order to comply with it, you first need to understand or work it out. And you begin to design your guides to determine that order. And then design the design UI Kit. Without which no more or less serious project is being done now.

    Battle time


    And now your arsenal is charged and you direct it to the “combat project”. But after a few shots, you have a light jerk, regarding the fact that your heavy artillery is not so flexible and mobile. These thoughts simply occupy the mind. There is an understanding that everything is going as it should, logically and progressively, but the unpleasant feeling that you have adjusted somewhere, itches nervously, smoothly driving you crazy.

    Parameters again


    After plunging into yourself, inside the interface and analyzing the problem, you begin to hear sober voices indicating that the main task is to make the ecosystem flexible to change. And all this is solved by some interface dependencies, the removal of variable parts into variables, even more stringent guides, and structural rules for the formation of the interface. Now you feel like an “interface god.” And realize that the “correct” UI cannot be born outside the browser, as many chains of dependent parameters appear. In fact, you have developed your own UI framework “ideally” tailored for your tasks and projects.

    UI framework


    If you discard the husk, then your UI process is the processing and classification of data according to certain parameters, guided by logic and regularity. Your resulting interface has absolutely no value (now I mean directly the “matter” itself, without relying on research, experience, etc. Until the UXs have gone out of their mouth) and it doesn’t matter how much time you spent playing it . The most important thing is how well developed your core is and how quickly and flexibly you can reproduce exactly the same and hundreds more of them, in terms of the manufactory itself. Then the process pleasantly moves from endless refactoring to successive improvements.

    Natural improvement


    At some point, the project interface reaches the point where it stops being in a fever. A kind of stable version . And then a point improvement is required. It is important here not to dig into local edits. If you have a need to make a lot of stylistic local changes to some component, this is a signal that can mean two things:
    1. Or you are engaged in “custom”, as a result of taste, and you are not well aware of your UI.
    2. Your base kit is not flexible enough to allow reasonable modifications to the component.


    A conscious UI is when you learn to find more parameters with each iteration and begin to organize them. And then you build algorithms to improve them.

    Design must be killed


    If you had no reason to hate yourself, now is the time. You smashed the head off of a random, sentimental, beautiful piece of design. And worst of all, you enjoy it. Congratulations, you are now in the sect.

    Role and data type


    There is no such thing as some kind of interface object in the browser. If this is just some kind of object, then it has absolutely no value in the interface. Since you simply cannot identify it in your ecosystem. Ultimately, you will come to component thinking at the earliest stages, and not at the final stages of the process. You will come to BEM only during the design process.

    In fact, you don’t care about the look at all, not that it would be all the same, just look, it’s a consequence of the algorithm through which the object passes. And here even the most sophisticated artist becomes an ascetic. You realize that before you were simply dumbfounded by the cosmetic capabilities of the web and spawned a lot of trash.

    Asceticism in design


    • Radical minimalism, as the highest degree of logic. Since all parameters are controlled.
    • Designs in accordance with the methodology for reuse and scaling.
    • Logically fragmented content, finished visualization.


    We kill emotions in design


    Explicit "vulgar" emotions must be completely eradicated in the design. This is the only way to make the interface efficient. Everything should obey logic and system, and the user and the reaction of the interface should be mutually taught.

    In a good UI, aesthetics is streamlined. There is much debate that engineers kill creativity and creatives create chaos. But in fact, upon reaching the highest level of understanding, everyone comes to one point - an ordered creative .

    Algorithms


    When your interface is combed, there is still half a step left so that you stop thinking with materials (layouts / screens) and rise to an even higher abstraction. Start thinking with the algorithms your entity design will go through. Algorithmic design is the next step, which resets all restrictions, making your interfaces more flexible, more precisely. In fact, your front-end kernel is an API that you run through some processes, getting new, hybrid combinations and delivering amazing results.

    The natural need for mass


    After going through all the circles of “automated hell”, you realize that your approach is as good as you could expect from it. And with other members of the sect, he is also good. But you have no common ground and it is so depressing that you are ready to take someone else's approach and adapt it for yourself, just to be part of something more than just your projects. (more on this in "BEM obsession. A consequence of parametric design" )

    2016


    It’s hard to put up with parametric design , especially if you are from the category of Old Believers and your “religious” design barriers fetter you. I will not deny myself the pleasure, once again, of tempting and recommend reading the New Year's eve @cssanderhood (conducted by Andrei Sitnik ) 12.24.2015 on the upcoming trends, such as media queries that depend on containers (and not on screen size), wrappers that set behavior for indoor units and td Ask yourself how ready your environment is to work out such interface solutions.

    Death is terribly interesting


    I’ll also end the post with the phrase of Grigory Bakunov: “All developments related to the death of a profession are terribly interesting.” But in fact, design is immortal - as it is too broad a concept. But all attempts to kill him push him to an incredibly new level ...

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