Improving the collaboration between developers and designers
At Label A we love to broaden our horizons. We love to learn about new technologies, to make connections with others in the field, and are always looking for moments to do so. We found the perfect opportunity when we stumbled upon the App Design & Development Conference, held in Barcelona. Events like these are full of opportunities to connect with experienced people and get inspired by their ideas and knowledge. ADDC in particular sells itself as a conference for both designers and developers, focussing on the synergy and collaboration between the two. Our developers and designers work closely together, which makes these subjects being true to our heart. Rick and I decided to attend the conference to see what it could offer us as a company.
Level Up!
A bunch of inspirational speakers covered a multitude of topics, ranging from AR and depth sensing to improving UX by using game elements. Dori Adar of Hands on Games covered the latter. He showed us how to apply aspects from the gaming world to pretty much all digital product design. He also conducted a real-time gamification experiment that showed how to influence user-excitement and involvement in various ways. Examples of these are setting compelling goals, storytelling and adding random rewards. Let the user learn by doing and make that experience fun; this will result in an increased eagerness to continue the journey and a more active engagement.
Prototype everything
Determining the right approach for your product can be hard. Trying out various solutions is therefore necessary. John Sundell, a big contributor to the Swift community, talked about the importance of testing out ideas and features over multiple iterations: prototyping! Both designers and developers have a plethora of tools available to put new ideas into existence, without actually creating the product. By prototyping, you find out what works best for your use-cases before committing to the time required for full-fledged design or development. Skipping the prototyping part might result in a wrong implementation. By actively trying out different solutions you make sure the end-product is what your users want.
One for all, all for one
But before you can start prototyping, you need to make sure your team is on the same level. Sara Cambridge, User Experience Researcher at Google, studied the collaboration between developers and designers. Hundreds of interviews taught her what works and what not. Although sounding cliché, the main takeaway from the presentation was that communication is key. Together with constant feedback cycles, respect, process evaluation/improvement and mutual curiosity this will result in great collaboration, which will in turn ensure great products and an awesome team atmosphere.
Conclusion
While the conference taught us way more than is being shown here, this quick recap does show that the conference caters to both developers and designers in a valuable way. Combining people and their knowledge opens up the discussion about our day to day problems and opportunities. It shows us different perspectives and changes our point of view.
Talking with so many different kinds of people taught us a lot. We got insights into their ways of working, ideas and knowledge, which is valuable for us. It makes sure we can continue developing ourselves and stay up to date with the latest and the greatest in our field.
See you next year ADDC!
Do you also want to visit conferences like ADDC? Do you want to keep developing yourself and the products you make? You might be a good fit for Label A! Check out our vacancies here.
