Design & UX · master area
Responsive Design
The device the named person actually uses shapes the design space. Not the device that flatters the screenshot.
Owners: Designer Phase it lives in: What We Build → How We Build (Volumes III and IV) The corpus principle this enacts: Witnessed, not described — including the device.
Where it lives in the chain
- What We Build · Ilities selection — responsive targets are picked, not assumed
- How We Build · Design Execution — where breakpoints become real
How to do this
- Practice — name the device in the observation note. Gal grades on her 27" desktop. Uri reconciles on his ThinkPad in airport lounges. The receptionist's tablet is propped against the keyboard. The breakpoints follow.
- Related craft — UX/Product Ilities
What good design output looks like
The Figma frames exist at the breakpoints the named people actually use, not the breakpoints the design tool ships with. Touch targets are named — minimum 44px on the surfaces touched by hands, not by cursors. Layout shifts between breakpoints are intentional, not emergent; the same state has the same meaning at every size. A form that fits on the desktop and collapses to an unscrollable accordion on tablet is two products in one codebase, and the helpdesk pays for both.
The discipline is observation-first: what device does this person reach for, and where? The pickup-line attendant uses a phone outside in sunlight changes contrast, button size, and layout in ways that "mobile-friendly" never does.
Related crafts
- UX/Product Ilities — where responsiveness is named as a target
- Design System — where the breakpoints live
- Interaction Design — touch vs cursor states