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Discussion on: What do you think of static design tools?

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Danny de Vries

At what point is 'dragging rectangles' around enough? When is it time to go to code? Whenever I feel like I have my main idea in a design tool I iterate further in the browser. And where do sketching and wireframes fit in your workflow?

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Joe Strouth

When is it time to go to code?

When the design is approved by the people who need it - through user research and/or conversations with stakeholders. As soon as I'm getting signals that it's likely to meet the project goals.

where do sketching and wireframes fit in your workflow?

I almost always do rounds of sketching with pen and paper before jumping into Figma. Certain things need to be ironed out before drawing rectangles

  • prioritized list of tasks that this screen needs to enable
  • prioritized list of the on-screen elements needed to enable each of those

Sketching helps me figure out selection, placement, and order without the complexity of colors, typesetting, etc. Figuring it out one layer at a time, rather than needing to manage and rework everything with each iteration