The value of an architecture, a personal design lesson.

I'm a designer. I tend to see things in a quite straight line: cause -> effect. When we started to design Bildy, we figured that a tool instead of a ready-made-solution would solve the pain in web projects we were seeing and experiencing in ourselves. So we set out to create an open, flexible and simple tool that would give a free canvas for each project. On that canvas the pros designing the service could then build their solutions. Simple flexible openness –our design principles. We weren't really thinking about architecture or an ecosystem, but that's what we we're building without a doubt.

Seeing now the way things add up in Bildy is what gets me really high, and I've truly realized how this works in the passing week. It's something my designer mind never thought of, but that now seems so obvious. Instead of direct solutions, it's a platform, an ecosystem, a big pool of symbiosis. You make one thing, and boom, that and dozen other things just got better.

This is how data models, controls and templates build upon each other in Bildy. No code lives in a vacuum. Every part gains from what it has around itself. Not a direct cause->effect but something more organic and unpredictable. Just like what a good chemistry does for people working in a team.

So this week we left our office and did a country side crunch. In addition to the obvious (sweat and code) we've enjoyed grilling, sauna, beers and the great weather. It's been a blast, and best of all: you get to call this work. We've been building some entirely new features (extending the platform if you will), refining the current UI and controls, and creating some sample services that help you get going. Many different things moving in parallel. All bringing more value to each other, all extending each others possibilities.

I try not to mix tech with design as it might limit solutions or give wrong intentions for doing things. Tech is a tool, not the purpose. But the way I see Bildy come to life and things building on each other, I can't help but to think how could architectural thinking help me design things in the future. Instead of designing things to solve the obvious, create a direct cause-and-effect, designing an ecosystem where individual "players" working through different ways together would drive for a more robust solution that one could've imagined.

This wouldn't be the most obvious way to design, and definitely not the easiest. I might even have ask help from the tech whiz. But the results I'm seeing are way cool and it's something I'd like to do more. Maybe next time it could be more intentional and planned for.