Thinking Beyond the Canvas
Why the best interface decisions start before you open Figma.
Most of my early design work started in the wrong place. I would open a canvas, pick a layout, and try to make it feel polished. The result was often clean, but rarely intentional.
The shift happened when I started treating design as a sequence of decisions instead of a visual exercise.
Start with the constraint
Every product has a constraint that matters more than the others:
- speed
- clarity
- trust
- delight
When I know which one leads, the rest of the interface gets easier to judge.
Reason before pixels
Before drawing anything, I write three lines:
- What is the user trying to do?
- What should feel effortless?
- What should feel deliberate?
That small step prevents me from over-designing screens that only need to communicate one thing well.
Implementation is part of the design
Typography, spacing, and motion only matter if the underlying structure holds up. I prefer working close to the code because the trade-offs show up early.
The canvas is useful. It just should not be the first move.