Let's have a look at UI and UX documents. We produce many different design documents as part of design work. Mockups are probably the most common document in UI design. These are visual representations of the final product, it could be a page design or a screen design, before jumping into detailed UI design.
Teams often create wireframes. Wireframes help ensure everyone is on board with a rough outline of the design.
To give a better idea of the interactions and behavior of a final product, you could also create interactive prototypes. You might create mood boards and style cards or style tiles; these are handy for sharing, look and feel in the early stages of design.
Working on design systems may also require you to design parts of an interface, including color palettes, typographic hierarchies, and modular component patterns.
In UX design, you are likely to create many of the same documents. You may also produce more text-based documents, like providing insights from user research and user tests, as well as sharing guidance for your team. This could include information architecture and UI designs.
Sometimes you just need to visualize or share a quick idea. And that's where sketches and whiteboarding come in. I cannot tell you how many times I've scribbled a rough drawing into my notebook, taken a photo and shared just that with my teammates.
The best design document is the one that gets the job done.
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