Communication
Design and UI developers
Trust and communication are key to establishing a good working relationship between designers and developers. Granted, this can be quite challenging in today’s workplace where, often, these two teams are not located in the same building or even the same country. Nevertheless, it is important to note that trust and communication are parts of a two-way street.
UI implementation has an almost natural tendency to diverge from its intended design. Those beautiful pixel-perfect design comps go through the brutal reality of software development in the form of deadlines, roadmap, miscommunication, and bugs, lots of bugs. We must have great communication between all departments Ux — design — UI.
Design processes that engage designers and developers very early tend to result in higher UI quality because it provides the necessary flexibility and agility to steer ideas as they are implemented.
Pixel imperfection, inconsistent behaviour, unexpected user flow, responsiveness issues, janky animations. You can name it. The bridge is on all these unintended UI bits that end up in the release, we normally don’t notice that but they are there.
Unfortunately, is not something you can avoid entirely. There is always something you let slip or have to compromise when you’re building anything, thats the away. There are a number of factors in the development process — for better and worse. UX/Design process is definitely one of them.
Generally speaking, the larger the distance between the design and developers teams, the worse the tends to be. The way design is approached in the development process has a great influence on how well designers and UI developers interact.
Is not just design on Photoshop, sketch or Axure, we need to have amazing bridge between UI developers and UX, communication between those teams is very important on process of the product.
Designers spend a long time working on their specs, of the product or feature and UI developers only start working on it once the specs are “done”. The danger with this process is might create a disconnection between designers and developers due to the focus on deliverables and specs instead of the much-needed fluid communication between the teams.
Why is it so important to have designers/Ux and developers working very closely? there are a number of issues that you only spot once you actually try the design ideas. If designers don’t engage with developers, the product will likely stick with broken design.
This is why having design-minded developers can make a massive difference because they can set much higher bar for the UI quality right from the initial implementation and beyond — instead of relying solely on the designers to do so. The bottom line is that the design process does not end with the specs, no matter how complete they look. In fact, design specs are just the beginning, you ended up with a complete different design as you thought at beginning.
Solution
Both developers and professionals need to respect each other, consider all points of view. While company culture is important to promote interdisciplinary collaboration, we as individuals, are responsible to become familiar with our colleagues’ tools, methodologies, and constraints. This helps us strive to ensure that the end result will be a successful and timely product deployment.
Understanding and admiration
Understanding each other’s role and respecting their efforts will reinforce the relationship between designers and developers. Designers should be aware of development basics while developers should be familiar with the nitty-gritty of designing. This way both the teams can develop respect and empathy for each other. You need to accept the fact that others job is equally difficult and crucial as yours.
Provide Context
Before start creating design assets, provide a little background information on how graphics are going to be used. To avoid unnecessary back and forth from misunderstanding, it is our responsibility to communicate your background knowledge clearly, and let them do their best work.
From Developers to Designers
Designers face a difficult challenge, especially when they are left in the dark with ambiguity of evermore complex web design specs. Developers at least have the technical understanding to figure out things on their own. The key is to provide tools, tips, and context for designers to have full understanding of the medium they are designing for.
From Designers to Developers
Developers face difficult challenges on design implementations in today’s abundance of browsers and devices. Nothing is one-size-fits all and load performance is always an issue. To further complicate things, many options are available at hand to implement a particular design. Speak with them before start a design and make sure they are on same road.
Show them wireframes is the most effective method, especially when they are coupled with a verbal walkthrough. This way, we get a visual representation of the desired look and feel along with a verbal explanation of the interaction expectations.
Conclusion,
Trust and communication are key to establishing a good working relationship between designers and developers. Granted, this can be quite challenging in today’s workplace where, often, these two teams are not located in the same building or even the same country. Nevertheless, it is important to note that trust and communication are parts of a two-way street.
Miscommunication leads to major problems due to which the project may eventually get affected. Open and positive communication results in strong relationship.
Photo credits: Markus Spiske / www.temporausch.com
