Calvin & Hobbes: The Ultimate Collaboration
Developer + Designer
If you’ve ever read a Calvin & Hobbes comic, then you definitely understand the satire between these two best friends. They belong together forever, they complete each other—Calvin, with his wild imagination and free spirited nature, and Hobbes, the moral compass and logical base of this hilarious friendship.
Some readers would go as far as to say the Calvin & Hobbes comics give a value that most comics cannot: a relation to the real world—life lessons you can cherish and remember forever. I completely agree and have seen it first hand (I’ll explain in a bit).
Before I explain those life lessons, I’d like to showcase another duo that can be found at almost every successful company: the developer and the designer.
The main thing to consider in this comparison is the value of great communication. That’s what makes Calvin & Hobbes work, they are polar opposites. But, just as they say, opposites attract.
As a designer, I can relate with the young Calvin—he wants to explore the world, have as much fun as possible, walk the thin line, and live on the edge (as far as his parents will let him!).
Yet, also as a developer, I see some characteristics of Hobbes that I can relate to as well. The tiger is steady and calm, yet playful and philosophical. He keeps Calvin in check, but doesn’t limit his creativity.
These two, like our typical web team, play by their own rules. No matter how strange they are. At the end of the day, they both enjoy what they do and like going through it together. It’s tough out there! Especially when the internet is constantly evolving, if you can’t keep up, you’re useless.
One of the toughest parts about working within any collaboration is actually working together and communicating in a way that everyone understands. With cool jargon and hipster abbreviations, it’s hard for everyone to differentiate your margin-left from their padding-right.
At the end of the day, both web designers and web developers are working towards the same goal—to create a stellar website that performs way past expectations and looks pristine enough to show your mother.
But the truth is, like Hobbes (who wasn’t a valedictorian by any means), our knowledge only begins once we leave school and step into the real world. Sure, those books and teachers taught you how to get your feet wet, but the sure as hell didn’t show you how to fend off the sharks.
Not every project will go smoothly—remember, we are all still people (and a tiger). And if you get stuck with a bug or a stubborn line of code or even get a case of the dreaded creative block, remember the sun is always shining outside the office (unless you’re in Seattle, sorry NW).
Although designers and developers spend most of their time on their laptops hacking projects together, they must also understand the essential step to problem solving efficiently—going outside. It’ll really open your mind, just try it out every now and then.
And now to my favorite part of this collaborative effort!
Just remember to have fun. Life’s not so hard! A challenging project is just another opportunity for growth, a way to conquer the unknown, and escape the regularity. Embrace it! Most people never get a chance like this. It’s one of the best feelings on the planet—actually creating something. It’s magical.
With a team built up of a designer and a developer, you must complete each others’ skills. Be the blue to their black, the variable to their function. It’s all up to you. That will close the communication gap—complete understanding of each others’ strengths and weaknesses. Once you hone in on what you both can improve on together, there’s no stopping you two.
If the developer has a difficult time with CSS, spend more time designing those effects so you can pair on those troublesome properties while working on the front end.
If the designer doesn’t understand how the application will work, it will be a lot harder to solve the problem with design before it is coded. No one ever wants to do the same thing twice. That’s the only rule to Calvinball!
As the internet continues to become a learning tool for almost all technological careers, we will start to see an intersect in the skill set of a designers and developers. The blurring of this fine line is something to seek out; a goal worth striving for. It’ll be a great learning experience for us real-life Calvins and Hobbeses. Now let’s all build something great together.
