A Design Specification (or Design Spec) is a tool that Designers of all fields use. Whether you’re a Graphic Designer or an Interior Designer, you can use a Design Specification to help you build a bigger picture of your design and make sure that it functions as intended.

Having an understanding of how to use a Design Specification will allow you to fully understand the requirements for your project. You’ll create designs that are fully considered from start to finish. This makes it an incredible tool for Designers. 

At Nollie we want to show you the transferable skills of Design, so you can become a versatile designer. You’ll find it easier to adapt to new projects and expand your creative skillset. We do this by demonstrating the 12 Principles to Become Interdisciplinary. 

By using a Design Specification, like the one we provide, you can approach new projects with an iterative approach. By answering over 30 prompts in the document, it will help develop your ideas in detail and look at how your design works in different contexts.

What is a Design Specification?

A Design Specification is a list of over 30 prompts regarding your design. It will help you create a detailed understanding of the requirements needed to fit the brief. 

The prompts cover as many aspects about the Design as possible, such as the requirements of the brief, pricing, customer interaction, aesthetics, environment and much more. These allow you to see how well your design performs in different contexts.

The Nollie Design Specification comes with a list of 33 Prompts each used to test your design against different criteria. By using these prompts you can look at how your idea works within different contexts, and apply real world answers to help answer these questions.

A Design Specification is intended to be very literal. If you gave it to another designer, they should be able to read your specification and know what your trying to achieve. It’s like you are writing the instruction manual for your own idea.

A Design Specification should provide real answers to the prompts listed. For example, if your asked about the weight of your designs, you should provide a real number (i.e. 5kgs / 11lbs). You can use the Research stage of your process to help answer the prompts.

How Designers Can Use a Design Specification?

A Design Specification is a vital tool for any designer to understand the larger context of their work. A Design Spec is used throughout the Design Process, the workflow used by designers. You can learn some of our best tips for mastering your Design Process here.

From the start to the end of your design project, you should be constantly using your Design Specification. A Design Spec allows you to understand the requirements of your project, by testing it under different criteria across it’s performance, customer interaction and planning.

A Design Specification is intended to be an evolving document. It has more information added to it throughout the project. At the start of the project its a great way to figure out what areas need researched, and throughout the project it can keep you on brief.

The best way is to approach the prompts with a rough understanding that you can then quantify. So for example, if your working on an Industrial Design project, you’d write that the project needs to be lightweight then update it when you know it needs to weigh under 5 kg.

We’ve added some extra tips and tricks within our Design Specification Digital Template.

Why You Should Use a Design Specification

There are several reasons why Design Specifications have become such a vital tool for Designers. It’s a tool that has become vital in my own Design Process.

It is a tool that could greatly benefit your workflow and the outcomes of your interdisciplinary projects.

Here are six ways using a Design Spec can improve your work.

1. A Design Specification Provides Clarity and Consistency

Whether your working on a project on your own, or with a team you can use your Design Specification as a way to keep tabs on the details of your design throughout your project. 

It’s a place where you can store important details about the project and it’s outcome in real data. The end goal of the Design Specification is to have a detailed list of the project outcomes.

If you were to share this with your team or your stakeholders, they would be able to understand the project and the outcome you are trying to achieve just by reading your Design Spec.

2. A Design Spec Improves Communication

By keeping a detailed list of the requirements and details regarding the technical details of your project, you have a better way of remembering these details.

It allows you to share these details easily with other members of the design team, the clients and the stakeholders. 

3. You Understand The Different Design Requirements

A Design Specification provides you with a list of requirements for your project, across 30 different contexts.

These prompts include aspects of the design’s performance and customer expectations. It also goes into topics you may not have considered like the environment your design will sit in, maintenance, manufacturing and even shelf-life. 

As a Designer, you’ll know that the best designs come from when every detail has been carefully considered. A Design Spec allows you to look at these different aspects easier, some which you may originally have overlooked, and come up with a plan to address them.

4. Efficiency

By using a Design Specification Template, you can save time with every project. Using a Design Spec helps streamline your Design Process.

By using a Design Spec, you know from the beginning of your project the questions that need answered through research, user testing and feedback.

5. Risk Management

A Design Spec helps identify any risks to the project. In our Design Spec Template, there’s even an entire prompt dedicated to risks of the project. We have have a prompt on regulation, if your design needs to meet Government guidelines.

By addressing the risks in earlier in your Design Process, you have more time to identify them and address them before it’s too late.

Knowing what the potential risks are to your project, allow you to plan for them. By reducing the risks in the early stages, you can ensure that your design is going to fulfil the needs and expectations of the client.

6. Evaluation and Feedback

You can use your project’s Design Spec as a way to share and evaluate the design’s progress with your stakeholders, the people who will be impacted by your work. You can make sure that your project is meeting the brief and get feedback.

By using a Specification, you can make any changes to your project earlier. This means if there are any issues, you can discover them before it’s too late. You want to “Fail Fast and Fail Forward.”

When Should You Use a Design Specification?

A Design Spec is a document that should be added to throughout your project. By opening up your Design Specification at the start of your project you can use the prompts as a way to guide you in the next stages.

At Nollie, we recommend updating your Design Specification as you reach different milestones in the Design Project. I try to update my Design Spec after every milestone in the Design Process.

Who Can Use a Design Specification

At Nollie, we believe in the power of being interdisciplinary work. We want to share the skills that allow you to develop a versatile design career like some of the best designers in the world.

While Design Specifications originally came from Industrial Design, they are now used across Interior Design, Graphic Design, UX/UI Design and Fashion. Using a Design Spec is a great transferable skill to add to your creative skillset.

Also, it proves that aspects of one design field can have a huge impact on another. There’s so much that you can use to enhance your design work by learning from and respecting other design fields, which is the entire point of Nollie in the first place.

Conclusion

A Design Specification is a great tool that can be used by a variety of Designers to help further your work. By looking at how your design proposal works within different contexts, you can develop real world answers to your idea.

Using a Design Spec helps remove some of the overwhelm when you’re starting a new project. You have a great tool in your arsenal to help find out what answers you need to bring your design to a final concept.

You can check out Nollie’s Design Specification Template in our online store. We’ve tailored our Design Spec to work for multiple fields and encourage interdisciplinary work.

Nollie aims to become the ultimate tool for Designers to develop their creative work by sharing the transferable skills between Design fields. If you think you have what it takes to become an interdisciplinary designer, why not sign up to our newsletter?