Found this article especially relevant as I'm currently following just behind our UX team prototyping in code as they design early mockups using InVision. The spirit of what we're doing is aiming for the "collaborative" narrative outlined in this post, but the fact that there is still a handoff occasionally makes it feel like what the article calls “bridging the gap.” It is very early days, but I'm anxious for a future where more of our tools can speak the same language and actually impact code that will be used in the final project. Still a long way to go on that front though.
I found this embedded quote to be especially insightful:
Production code is a surrogate for decision-making power. Production code is the source of truth. It is the realtime sum total of all the conversations, all the decisions, all the politics…it is everything. Whoever is pushing code to production is running the product. Everyone else only has influence. Rebekah Cox
I don't necessarily want all of that power. In a perfect world, I help enable others to assert control on the areas of the project where they are experts. With our current tools there is just too much risk of things being lost in translation. Today we're doing the best we can with the tools we have and against all odds we often find a way to make it work.