Functional Design Systems

Meaningful documentation is invaluable. I approach everything as "service design," which is a holistic look at the entire experience. Throughout my career I have sought patterns and ways to templatize my work. Prior to design systems emerging in my world around 2017, my web application work was often annotations, functional design documents and feature specifications, which would often be referenced from or pasted into user stories. (This is not an approach I condone, but we have to meet our clients where they are at.)

Since 2017 I have been using a functional design approach for every engagement. With the generative AI tools coming online I began applying my old HTML/CSS skills toward creating front-end code, which could then be embedded into a functional design document or site.