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I've worked as both, for many years now. It obviously varies by individual and by team, but in general the solution is more communication, earlier in the proce
by karaterobot 4y ago
I've worked as both, for many years now.
It obviously varies by individual and by team, but in general the solution is more communication, earlier in the process, and frequently throughout it.
The thing designers often don't understand is how their design needs to work within the larger system, which has many complex interactions, tradeoffs, and constraints. Changing one thing entails changing many other, non-obvious things, and did you think about that when you drew a picture of it working perfectly in Figma? No?
The thing developers often don't understand is that designers work without the benefit of certainty. They may get a set of requirements from a PM, but often they don't, or they don't get a very good one. Do all the user interviews you want, you're still just guessing about a hundred times a day. And there is no automated testing or static analysis. There isn't even syntax highlighting. You just make something you hope is right, then show it to people, and have them point out all your mistakes. Of course they get defensive and protective of their jobs.
So developers and designers need to be in communication with each other frequently, to spot problems early and fix them. And it needs to be so common and lightweight an interaction that it doesn't feel like a committee meeting, but like a collaboration between partners with the same goal.
- everlost 4y agoI've been working 15+ years as a UX developer, with varying results. From my experience, the best way to get developers and designers to work well together is to have frequent short demos/reviews (ideally weekly). That has helped solve random problems like: 1. This user flow does not match backend reality, let me explain why. 2. How does this screen design handle XYZ usage? 3. I cannot export this asset from figma, please share. 4. Would you mind verifying that the fonts/colors/spacing look okay? 5. Are you sure about not reusing an existing icon from our library? 6. How should we handle error and loading states? 7. How important is this design feature? It'll take me a while to build it. 8. Did you expect this desktop layout to be full width or 1600px? 9. Can you give me an overview of what changed since the last design version? 10. This is how I implemented the design. Is that correct?
- powerhour 4y ago> How should we handle error and loading states? This should be the title of every designer/developer interaction meeting.
- zevir 4y agoLOL. True..
- creativenolo 4y agoThis. Your process also highlights that developers and designers working together is a process that is interlinked and takes time. Another comment highlights that designers work often without the full picture. I'd add to this they are responsible for bringing solutions to the table as the catalyst to collaboration, exploring compromise and iteration. The best engineers bring solutions to the table too. The worst is when the developers and the designer are bullshitting each other on why things aren't possible with reason from their own domain that the others don't understand or can't reason about.
- zevir 4y agoThanks for these insights. I think this is a great approach. The question is, how to best facilitate these short/demo reviews without creating too many context-switches and interruptions for everyone. We're actually working on a platform that tries to solve this (https://livecycle.io/ https://livecycle.io/) by generating instant, collaborative PR preview environments. So the kinds of reviews you describe can happen async and in context. Do you think this approach would work to facilitate the reviews you outline here?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]