The question is less about why designers and developers should work together, but how they can work better together and understand each other. Effectively, both jobs have a singular common goal: To create and ship a great product.
Act as one team
When leading a team of designers, you quickly realise there’s a gap of communication between developers and designers. Processes often cause this in the larger organisations. I have worked in agile teams, in very flexible agency environments where decisions are often chaotic and you have to adapt very quickly and often. You often collaborate remotely with clients and teams of developers overseas in different time zones. Finding a way of clearly communicating is key to successful delivery.
To ship a great looking and working product, developers need to work closely with designers and vice versa.
Sitting together and fixing CSS styling for about an hour a week can save a lot of time and frustration. We have all been there, with spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations containing comments marked in big fat red arrows, comments that are mostly chaotic and open to interpretation. The question is less about why designers and developers should work together, but how they can work better together and understand each other. Both jobs have a singular common goal: To create and ship a great product.
‘I need this line to be much thicker and green’
Developer:
By sitting together with your fellow developer you not only get faster results but your team becomes more integrated. Designers learn from developers the intricate little problems they face with code — dealing with a number of browsers and devices, developers, on the other hand, learn the need of pixel-perfect designs and why that ‘one-pixel gap’ really matters.
The magic happens in between
There is probably no need to mention or dwell upon the subject and importance of collaboration; we all know that. An excellent scrum team works like a well-oiled machine, delivering great MVPs at speed and quality. But there is always room for improvement. Often enough companies I worked for wrongly assume the front-end implementation of the MVPs do not need to be perfect because deadlines and budgets and “because it’s just an MVP.”
It is a worrying pattern that I see quite often in the industry.
I am a true believer in pixel perfection and perfect execution when releasing MVPs.
MVP is a product with limited and restricted functionality, not poor quality.
And this is where designer-developer collaboration brings the product to perfection. It is where the real magic happens and renders your product a pleasurable user experience even with limited functionality.
Be ahead of the game
It is imperative to be ahead of the development phase with your research, prototypes, initial testing, and ‘final’ designs. Being in a situation where the design process is still underway while the dev team starts a sprint is not ideal and causes delays and unnecessary additional work.
Put yourself in a comfortable situation where all your designs are ready before developers go to work it makes your life easier and the dev team certainly appreciates it.
Early collaboration
It’s crucial to involve developers at the very early stages of a product life cycle. While brainstorming developers can bring valuable knowledge to the table, i.e. responsiveness, accessibility, optimising graphics — there are essential tech decisions you have to make early. Later in the process, before you start designing, you find that involving someone who builds it is essential. It saves time and frustration and perhaps the project itself.
I love working with developers who understand the product as a whole and not just focus on the features they work on to clear their tasks for the day. And that’s another reason why including everyone in the team from the start is so important.
Be more hybrid
The line between development and design is blurring; I can see that each year. Developers become more knowledgeable in design and accessibility, and designers start coding, thinking in relative units rather than pixels. It is encouraging and very welcoming, but the transformation could be faster and more efficient, but it’s up to you, you are your own greatest investment.
It’s never too late to expand your skillset — in this industry you never stop learning.
Last year I finished a six weeks javaScript course at the age of 37. It took me a while deliberating whether this is the kind, of course, that would benefit my career as a Product Designer. And knowing what I know now I wish I have done it sooner. Here’s why:
The chances of me developing production-level code are thin or none, but gave me a great insight into how web apps function these days and how does that impact my design and UX strategy. It also opened many doors I have never thought of walking through not mentioning all the stimulating people I have met. The course allowed me to get closer to the development universe and to understand how modern front-end works — a valuable experience you could not put a price on.
On second thought actually, yes you could put a price on it, and many people do. It costs dearly for an introductory level course. But there are short courses at universities that are reasonably priced and tutored by professionals working in the industry.
I would suggest checking out City University short courses:
For beginners:
, and if you have some previous JS knowledge, I suggest the below:
Obviously, if you’re London based.
Thanks for reading.
