Katie Dill explains the architectural concept of parti, a core design idea that holds a project together as details develop. She describes how this principle from architecture and industrial design applies to software and product work, keeping integrity intact through the building process.
When you look at your relationship to architecture, to industrial design, even these fields are very far removed from software. What have those disciplines taught you about product making, quality in a software and digital context?
One thing that's a fantastic concept is the idea of parti. Basically what it means is like the core design, the core concept. And so you can imagine like drawing with a really thick Sharpie. What's the concept of the building? It's like, oh, well, it's like it's an L-shape or spokes on a wheel all around a center. A great architect is going to think about like, well, what's the core design of what I'm doing here? And then like holding that true as you build out the details kind of helps to create the integrity of that design and like keep that concept whole. That, I think, is something that we should think about from the design side as well.
