Merge UI & DEV

Today, we collaborate as a diverse team—each member contributing unique expertise and cultural perspectives. After experimenting with numerous frameworks, Meche and I(Andres) came together in 2019 to define a fresh, unified approach.

Our goal was straightforward: establish a shared vocabulary that bridges the gap between designers and developers—and the benefits have been profound.

First and foremost, clear terminology eliminates guesswork. When everyone means the same thing by “margin,” “padding,” or “spacing,” we cut down on back-and-forth questions and shorten development cycles. This consistency also accelerates onboarding: new team members quickly learn the standardized terms and patterns, so they contribute value sooner.

A unified language fosters stronger collaboration. Designers feel confident that their intentions—whether it’s letter-spacing for headings or padding-right on buttons—will be implemented faithfully, and developers gain deeper insight into design rationale, not just pixel values. That mutual understanding builds trust, reduces friction, and nurtures a culture of shared ownership.

From a code-quality perspective, the benefits ripple through our repositories. With everyone using the same SCSS mixins, variables, and naming conventions, our stylesheets remain DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) and highly maintainable. Refactoring becomes safer, because when you rename a single variable or adjust a global spacing scale, you know exactly where it applies.

Finally, this shared vocabulary scales as Terra grows. As we add new features or adopt new frameworks, our core conventions travel with us—preserving clarity across projects, preventing fragmentation, and ensuring that team members can move between codebases without relearning the basics. In short, by insisting on precision in our language, we’ve unlocked faster delivery, higher-quality code, and a truly collaborative environment.