5 Tips to Unlocking Future UI Teams’ Collaboration
The first time we manage a UI project we figure out that it couldn’t be done only with designers either by just having developers. So we put them all in one team, and we found a way to unlock the future of collaboration.
Having web designers and front-end developers working together can be a challenge. But it can also make them push themselves every day to implement high-quality UI projects.
Unlocking UI teams requires that all members, designers, and developers, collaborate on each component as closely and efficiently as possible. And we learned to be better team players, more agile and plus valuable on each UI project phase throughout the unlocking collaboration process.
Now we share with you 5 tips that will help your designers and developers work and improve their collaboration, your workflows and ultimately the digital product your company will deliver.
1. Elements visual hierarchy should be important to both designers and developers
Developers should prioritize and maintain the proportions and hierarchy between design elements over pixel-for-pixel sizes perfection. What we want to say with this is: developers don’t waste designer’s time by having them creating infinite versions of each view to show how it scales across every possible screen size.
Designers settled mobile and a widescreen desktop design proportions between type, images, and surrounding elements, and based on those front-end developers build the code and make the appropriate adjustments to maintain the established proportions.
However, designers must be aware of what happens to a system when it’s scaled down as well when it’s blown up on larger screens. So ease your developers work by providing scalable designs that can adjust to the infinite available resolutions at which a user might view a digital product.
2. Developers questioning your designers and designers known your developers
During a UI project communication should be at the center of the team. Front-end developers need to ask detailed questions since the moment they start building the design components. Understanding one’s functionality will save developers time and effort.
On the other hand, designers need to review with the developers the intent behind each design component to give them the necessary guidance through its building.
3. Both designers and developers need to contribute with their expertise
Although designers are the experts in what looks right and work in a design project, developers know what can actually be fulfilled. So designers need to take into account the developers’ contribution. When developers explain the tradeoffs and limitations of some design approaches, designers should make the necessary modifications that still meet the design goals.
Developers need to be informed and enlighten of the design intention and its target before writing any code. That allows developers to plan and componentize and be better prepared to produce code without needing to frequently stop their work to ask designers for clarification.
When this collaboration starts earlier in the project, that often saves time in the final phase of it as there are fewer design-related issues to fix.
4. Patterns are designers and developers best friends
Designers need to understand that the use of patterns in the design elements can help reducing friction not only for users but also for developers during the building phase.
The more patterns a designer use, the more developers can reuse code and have time to build complex interactions and animations that will amaze user’s experience.
5. Developers and designers need to keep knowledge up-to-date
Developers should understand that designers can look around the web and see other developers pulling off cutting-edge designs that require new tools and skills. So developers need to be aware of trends.
Designers also need to learn about browsers and what they can handle. Because designing an interaction or animation that will make the open performance to slow, can faint user experience.
Designing, building, testing and deploying great UI projects require a team effort and efficient teams’ processes, and that can only be carried forward if your company be able to unlock UI teams’ collaboration.
Find out how designers and front-end developers work closed in our UI teams meeting us at #MirrorConf. And get ready to unlock your collaboration.
