Glossary Authoring surface
Authoring surface
Design SystemAEMEDS
Definitions
The set of decisions a content author can make about an Element, described independently of the interface that presents them
An AEM dialog is evidence for an authoring surface; so is an EDS Block's authored-row shape. Neither is the thing itself.
Evidenced by a dialog — but a dialog is AEM's realization of one, not the surface
Naming the agnostic thing after one realization is the conflation this term exists to undo.
What an author gets to decide — a heading, a variant, an image, a link — held apart from how they decide it. Two platforms present the same decisions through different interfaces; the surface is what they have in common, and it is the unit a migration has to carry across.
Avoid: "dialog" when you mean the authoring surface.