I never imagined that one of the things that would make me feel closest to my NOÛS idea would be writing a technical document.
For a long time, NOÛS existed mostly in my head.
It was questions. It was conversations. It was philosophy.
It was the feeling that something was missing in the way we interact with AI.
I knew what I wanted NOÛS to feel like.
I knew I wanted it to be a space where people could slow down, question their assumptions and develop their own ideas rather than simply accept an answer generated for them.
But there is a big difference between having an idea and building something that another person can actually use.
Writing my first Technical Design Document (TDD) made me confront that difference.
Suddenly, the idea had to become real
My TDD was for a Power Apps prototype called the NOÛS Inquiry Journey Booking System. On paper, it sounds very technical.
There were tables, data fields, screens, formulas, navigation and data storage.
But sitting down to document it, I realised I wasn’t really just documenting an application. I was trying to answer a much harder question:
“What does the NOÛS experience actually look like for another person?”
That question stopped me for a moment.
Because when something lives in your imagination, you can leave the edges blurry.
You don’t have to decide exactly what happens when someone clicks a button.
You don’t have to decide what information needs to be stored.
You don’t have to think about what happens after one screen and before the next.
A working system doesn’t give you that luxury. It makes you decide.
From a thought to four screens
I eventually broke the prototype into four simple screens.
A Main Screen to begin the journey.
A Confirm Booking Screen where the user enters their information and makes their selections.
A Search NOÛS User Screen where existing users and bookings can be found.
And finally, a Confirmation Screen to complete the journey.
Four screens. It sounds simple.
But behind those four screens was a completely different way of thinking.
I had to ask: Where does the journey begin?
What does the user need to know?
What information do I need from them?
Where does that information go?
How does the system know what they selected?
What happens when they search?
What happens when they finish?
For the first time, I wasn’t just imagining the experience. I was designing it.
The moment technology started making sense
One of the things I had to learn was how information moves through an application.
For example, the prototype uses Power Apps’ Patch() function to save information into the NOÛS booking table.
That might seem like a small technical detail. For me, it wasn’t.
I began to see the connection:
A person enters an idea → the interface captures it → the system processes it → the information becomes part of something that can be used again.
That was the moment the technical side became less intimidating.
I started seeing the formulas not simply as formulas, but as little pieces of logic connecting the human experience to the system underneath it.
I also discovered something about myself
The most surprising part of writing the TDD wasn’t learning Power Apps.
It was discovering how much technical design is actually about thinking clearly.
I used to associate technical work with things like coding, systems and complicated terminology.
But writing the TDD showed me another side of it. Technical design asks you to be precise. It asks you to explain what you mean.
It asks you to notice the assumptions you have been making without realising it.
And it exposes the places where your idea isn’t quite developed yet.
That was humbling. Because I could no longer hide behind: “I have this idea for NOÛS.”
I had to ask: “Okay. How would it actually work?”
And that question made me think much more deeply about my own project.
There was something strangely fitting about that
NOÛS is about thinking. About questioning. About not accepting the first answer too quickly.
About moving from: Think → Challenge → Revise → Defend
And while I was building the prototype, I realised I was going through the same process myself.
I had an idea. I tried to structure it. I discovered problems.
I changed things. I tested the flow. I went back and revised it. Then I tried again.
The technical design process became a small version of the philosophy behind NOÛS itself.
I’m still learning
I wouldn’t describe myself as a technical expert.
I’m still learning how applications work. I’m still learning formulas. I’m still learning how to think about data, interfaces and system design.
There were moments when I had to stop and figure things out one piece at a time.
But perhaps that is what makes this experience meaningful to me.
I’m not building NOÛS from a place of already knowing everything.
I’m building it while learning. And maybe that’s okay.
Maybe building something worthwhile doesn’t begin with knowing exactly how to do everything.
Maybe it begins with caring enough about an idea to keep figuring things out.
From “I wish this existed” to “I am building it”
When I look back, one of the biggest changes is this: I started with:
“I wish there were a space where people could think more deeply with AI.”
Now I can say: “I’m trying to build one.”
The Technical Design Document may only be one step in that journey.
It isn’t the finished NOÛS product.
It isn’t the final architecture.
It isn’t even close to everything I eventually imagine NOÛS becoming.
But it represents something important to me.
It is evidence that the idea is slowly leaving my head and becoming something tangible.
And perhaps that is what building really is.
Taking something you can see only in your imagination…
and patiently giving it structure, shape and a way to exist in the world.
For me, that has been one of the most unexpected parts of creating NOÛS.
I thought I was learning how to write a technical design document.
Instead, I was learning how to turn a thought into something real.
And that feels like a very fitting lesson for a project whose whole purpose is to help people think.
Think deeper. Together.
