# The design file became a throne ## Story option The design file became a throne because designers were locked out of the product. That was not progress. It was compensation. Designers do not want better pictures of software. They want command of the software itself. Mode is for the ones done pretending the proxy is the work. ## Notes - Preserves Alex's current correction: the story is about designers shaping software itself, not only functional product editing. - Keeps the enemy on handoff culture, translation loss, static representation, and files/proxies replacing the product. - Do not frame engineers as the villain; use the launch spine to keep engineering review in the loop.