每当出现一种新的“设计转代码（design to code）”工具，人们就会兴奋不已。它被视为设计领域的“圣杯”——你现在可以用代码来做设计了，这是最终形态的进化。 但我不同意。只有当你把“产出”看得比“设计过程”更重要时，它才算圣杯。 每当设计师变得更像一个建造者时，某种理想主义和创造力就会消失。并不是因为“建造”不好，而是因为你在设计过程中过早地引入了不该这么早出现的约束条件。 我非常认同这样一个观点：设计最终体现在被交付、被发布的东西上。 但在真正发布之前，设计要经历许多阶段，而这些阶段并不从代码或实现层面的限制中获益。 在建筑领域，很多最优秀的作品都是从草图开始的，直到今天，一些最伟大的建筑师仍然坚持手绘。人们常常忘记，创造过程的核心并不是工具，而是形成一种愿景，然后把这种愿景转化为某种形式。 你可以在过程中使用各种工具，但设计师真正的工作，是传达这种愿景。 一旦你同时成为建筑师和施工者，或者同时成为设计师和开发者，你就会开始做出更保守的选择。你会倾向于那些你已经知道“可行”或“被支持”的方案。你会做更小的迭代，停止去梦想宏大的东西。这不是设计。 设计师们，不要这样做。 你们的职责是想象未来，而有时，代码和既定规范反而会成为阻碍。使用工具，理解领域，贴近媒介本身。 但不要失去你们最强大的能力——做梦的能力。 与工程师合作，把这些梦想变成现实。 用代码来做设计，只会通向局部最优，最终走向毁灭。 Whenever a new design to code tool comes around, people get excited. It’s considered the holy grail of design. You can now design with code. This is the final evolution. But I don’t agree. It’s only the holy grail if you value output higher than the process of design. Whenever a designer becomes more of a builder, some idealism and creativity dies. Not because building is bad, but because you start out including constraints earlier in the process than they should. I’m one that very much thinks design is ultimately what is shipped. But before it shipped, there is a lot of stages that don’t benefit from code or some implementation constraints. In architecture, a lot of the best work is started with sketches and some of the best architects still draw by hand. People forget that the creative process is not about tools. It’s about forming a vision, and then translating that vision into some form. You can use various tools as part of the process, but designers job is really communicating that vision. Once you become the architect and the builder, or the designer and the developer, you start making more conservative bets. You gravitate to what you already know is feasible or supported. You make smaller iterations. You stop dreaming something big. This is not design. Designers, don’t do that. Your job is to imagine the future, and sometimes code and convention gets in the way. Use tools. Understand the domain. Get close to the medium. But don’t lose your greatest strength ability to dream. Work with engineers to realize those dreams. Designing in code is just a path to local maxima and ruin.