Falling in love with a developer
Insights from a workshop
When was the last time you were frustrated by your developer or even the other way round, by your designer?
Yesterday? Oh lord, have mercy! — But there are solutions!
With these words we introduced the workshop, my former colleague Sebastian Prein and me we’re presenting.
Back then in 2013, we both worked at bleech — a Berlin based web development agency which works alongside creative agencies, bringing their digital concepts to life — as designers and frontend-developers.
In our daily work, we’ve been confronted with lot’s of interactions between designers and developers and realized, that they often don’t speak the same language. Thats why we wanted to give a talk about that.
Luckily, we we’re asked to do so by some people from betahaus Berlin.
Because this problem still prevails in many minds, here’s a closer look at what we did at the workshop.
The audience
Regarding to the topic we wanted to have developers, as well as designers in our audience. Thats why it was extremely important to talk to the hosts of betahaus, because otherwise they could not manage to provide the right audience.
The day of our workshop had come and the conditions were perfect — it was almost 50/50.
Role play
We wanted to start with a playful introduction, that creates a perfect basis for the further talk.
We took one designer and one developer. We gave them both some sheets with different words, like “html”, “css”, “layout” and so on. There was a small whiteboard between them, so they could not see each other working. Additionally we set a timer to 6 minutes to create more pressure.
You have to launch a responsive landingpage in 3 days. Use these sheets to order the tasks and arrange them.
After both created their plans, we wanted them to show it to each other.
As you might have guessed before, their arrangements have been totally different. We asked them why and they told us they had no idea what the other one was doing.
So we asked them, if it would have been better without the “wall” between them.
Yes, because then we could talk to each other.
But who said, you’re not allowed to talk?
From this on, we were totally prepared for the rest of the workshop.
But what can designers and developers do to work better together?
The prenups
Yes, working together is difficult sometimes. But the solutions are way easier then you might think.
Communication is key
If this article is about a single advice, then this advice is: Communicate!
No matter if you use #Slack, #Skype, any other tool, or if you have the opportunity to sit next to your counterpart communication is the best and easiest way of preventing misunderstandings. Plus: Together you can solve problems way faster than alone.
Contact person
You might not be able to talk to all the designers of a team, or all of the developers. If there are huge teams, always surround yourself with the correct contact person. Who is the one to talk to about a specific task?– If you know it, you can handle it.
Skill sets
Specific questions about a task? You want to know how the animation should look like? Then you better ask the interaction designer ;)
No matter what question you have — knowing your counterparts skills and responsibilities will help you getting answers faster and mire precise.
Mutual trust & respect
Ok, you might think you’re the greatest designer on earth and those stupid developers just develop what was in you mind. Nope!
Never think you’re better than any of your counterparts! You all work on the same project. And this project can only be as good as it’s “weakest link”!
Assumptions
Never think that your partner will know what you mean, tell him. He won’t know the details that have been in your mind.
A match made in heaven — keeping your partner happy
Some helpful tips for designers to make work easier. (If you’re a developer and you want to skip this paragraph — please restart reading this article again from the top)
Naming conventions
Hero, Header, Simple, Medium, Default … When you work together with a developer it is important, that you speak the same language. Maybe you’re talking about one and the same feature, but you have different names for it.
Don’t give misunderstandings a chance ;)
Photoshop etiquette — layers
When handing over designs, make sure that your counterpart knows how to handle it. Especially when you hand over open files like .psd or .sketch, make sure that there are useful names for your layers. No one is able to work with documents containing layer 0 up to layer copy 3653.
Planning for the future
Stop creating photoshop romantic and think ahead. If you do so, no one will ask what the layout should look like, when there are two letters more in the headline.
Hide & seek
I’ll be there if you need me.
I know it wont work that youre available 24/7, but it’s important that you counterpart can count on you, when there are questions.
It takes two to make a thing go right
All the advice so far is nice, but it works out best if your counterpart helps you working with these together.
Know the limits
Before working on a feature, sit together and talk about what’s possible and what’s not. Talk about supported browsers or platforms, performance, page weight and all the stuff that matters for your project.
Friendly reminders
Of course you won’t sit together the whole time working on your project. And also one of you will be in meetings from time to time.
If you have questions, just send some friendly reminders to your counterpart. But please no spam — this could be annoying.
Recognize your differences
Always keep in mind that you are different. Both of you are specialists in what you’re doing. But don’t think that your partner has all the knowledge you have and vice versa.
Remove the guesswork
Not sure what’s meant to be done? — As I already said: Talk to each other.
Tool time
It’s always good to work with the same tools. But this one goes further than the usual communication tools like Slack or HipChat.
You should sit together and talk about tools that make your workflow easier.
Is there a tool to perfectly exchange designs or prototypes? Perfect! See the results of the development without installing all the VM’s and Grunt components on your localhost? Perfect.
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
George Bernard Shaw
I really hope you enjoyed this article and might found it helpful. I’d also appreciate some ❤ from you. Thanks.
My name is Michèl Passin and I create interfaces for web and mobile applications. I have more than 11 years of professional experience in design, UI / UX and frontend development. Apart from that, I love to spend my time as a photographer. My favourite color is white.
