On Jan 28, 2009, at 4:40 PM, Peter Morville wrote:
I lumped pixel-perfect mockups or design comps under the broader
category of
concept designs, but I recognize that's a (big) stretch. That leads
me to a
question: what is a good broader category that could include design
comps
AND their equivalents in domains beyond web/print design (e.g.,
physical
buildings and spaces and products)?
It's not a big stretch. It's apples and oranges. Concept design and
pixel-perfect screen mockups simply cannot be clumped together.
Concept design is conceptual and only used for the purpose of testing
ideas before one gets too far into the design and production process.
Pixel-perfect mockups can be used as a functional equivalent of
rendered comps during the concept process if the person making them
can use their tools quickly enough as whatever they would otherwise.
But concept designs are not the functional equivalent of what pixel-
perfect screen mockups are used for, which is to specify in precise
detail visual aspects of the final product as it will ship.
If a pixel-perfect mockup uses #333 12pt. Arial for a font label, then
that's how it will be coded.
I'm not sure I agree that design comps are the equivalent of
blueprints for
building a house...to me, those are a system map...but, of course,
I'm not a
real architect, so I could be wrong :-)
Design comps can be clustered with concept designs. But that is
entirely separate from a pixel-perfect screen mockup.
All design professions -- from fashion to industrial to architecture
to graphic -- have some functional equivalent of a blueprint. In your
list of deliverables, you have nothing that can be segmented as
specifically acting like a blueprint in the way you've presented the
article. I find that to be a big hole with the piece.
There has to be a deliverable that is a 1:1 mapping that matches what
the final shipping product will be if we are to be deemed a true
design profession. In the world of software and digital interfaces,
this is at best a fully functioning prototype with supplemental spec
documentation. At minimum, it's must at least be a combination of
interactive prototype, pixel-perfect screen mockups and spec documents
that verbalize the combination of the other two.
--
Andrei Herasimchuk
Principal, Involution Studios
innovating the digital world
e. [email protected]
c. +1 408 306 6422
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