Design Documentation
Design Processes
A comprehensive record that captures all aspects of the design process, including decisions, iterations, and outcomes, serving as a reference for future work or collaboration. Design documentation preserves institutional knowledge, facilitates communication, and provides a historical context for understanding the evolution of a design over time.
In practice
Involves creating detailed records of design decisions, processes, and specifications. Design documentation is important throughout the design process, providing a reference for team members and stakeholders. Its significance lies in promoting transparency, aiding collaboration, and ensuring that design decisions are well-documented for future reference or handovers. Design documentation also contributes to maintaining consistency and continuity in design projects.
Questions
What is Design Documentation?
Design documentation is the written and drawn record of what was designed, why, and how it is meant to be built and used.
Why do you use Design Documentation?
Teams change and memory fades. Documentation is what stops the next person unpicking a decision that was made for good reasons nobody wrote down.
How do you use/apply Design Documentation?
Record decisions and their reasoning, not just the outcome. Keep it close to the work so it is updated rather than abandoned.
When do you use Design Documentation?
Continuously, and especially at handover and at any point a decision is reversed.
Who uses Design Documentation?
Designers, with engineers and technical writers.
