I believe one of the biggest flaws of today’s tools is their failure to allow designers to easily work with real data. Because of this, designers often fill their mocks with idealized information that is anything but representative. Beautifully composed photos. Perfectly sized bits of text. Just the right amount of content to fit. We spend an inordinate amount of time making our pixel-perfect fabrications. We then make sub-optimal decisions based on this, considering only our single, perfect state. We are surprised when our designs are implemented because we forgot to solve a variety of edge cases and problems. When we don’t work with real data, we deceive ourselves.

In contrast, when designers work with real data they design in reality. They allow data to inform and constrain their work. Their decisions are wholly informed; implementation details carefully considered; edge cases solved. They build empathy for how their users will actually experience things in a variety of contexts. They are not surprised when their designs get implemented because they’ve been using real data all along.