6 ms·

Dancing Without A Partner

17 points by mh_ 14y ago

thelarry 14y ago
Do you mean use something like a BaaS?
psweber 14y ago
UX design tools and processes are definitely lagging behind right now. The annotated wireframe document created in Visio, InDesign, OmniGraffle, etc. is still the norm. The closest thing we have to a solid prototyping tool is Axure (http://www.axure.com/ http://www.axure.com/), but creating anything beyond the equivalent of clickable JPGs is kludgy to say the least. Kids fresh out of HCI and interaction design school are close to useless, because they have no experience having their designs developed. Seeing them interact with (frustrated) seasoned developers can be very painful. UX designers should learn enough about programming to be dangerous for many reasons, but hand coding prototypes probably isn't ever going to be a scalable answer. I fantasize about working on a next gen UX prototyping tool all the time, but, to use the article's metaphor, I don't have a dance partner for that.
- gercheq 14y ago
  There are several UI prototype builders out there. Most of them are built on top of Twitter's Bootstrap. ie. http://jetstrap.com/ http://jetstrap.com/
- timjaeger 14y ago
  Look more people need to be coding and understand as much as possible about frameworks, databases, javascript, RoR, NodeJS, responsive design, dev time frames, Agile, etc. I am a UX Designer who can code (Rails, Javascript, CSS etc.) and it embarasses me when I talk to others that are just 'wireframe monkeys'. If you don't know HTML how can anyone trust your designs? I can only take so much - UX people need to step up and LEARN this stuff. If you don't you will just pave your own path to irrelevancy. If it were up to me there would be some other way to describe UX ppl that know tech and those that can merely hit something with the pretty stick and leave devs scratching their heads...
  - psweber 14y ago
    I mostly agree with you. Many UX professionals I have worked with are almost proud about the fact that they don't have hands on experience with software development or visual design. They are the worst of both worlds. That being said, I don't think that a UX designer should spend the average day working on the nuts and bolts of development. A structural architect builds models and then collaborates with someone with more expertise who is in charge of the real building process. The comparison isn't perfect, but I think that as our industry matures, it will more closely resemble that. UX architects need a better modeling tool.
billyjobob 14y ago
I always thought a web designer was someone who knew HTML, a Mac UI designer was someone who knew ObjC and XCode, etc. But apparently it's now normal for a professional 'designer' to be an artist who just knows Photoshop, who then hands over to a programmer who recreates the whole design from scratch in code!
- ovi256 14y ago
  Well, in French web agencies, there's a third person in the middle, called an "HTML integrator" who gets the photoshop sketches and makes them into HTML, CSS and static images, who then hands this to the programmers who plugs the dynamic bits in there. I think this is responsible in a large part for the design tropes of the French web. Newer/hip startups don't do this, they use designers who write HTML/CSS, like the rest of the world.
- psweber 14y ago
  The larger the organization, the less true that is. If you are working on a small product team, you should most definitely get your hands dirty with (some of) the front end development. If you work at an agency or as a freelance consultant and are switching between projects for the web, iOS, Android and other platforms, it makes more sense to pair up with a specialist. There is also a big different between a user experience architect and an art director. The UX architect plans the system to meet the user and business needs (with an understanding of the technical ramifications of interaction design decisions). An art director works in photoshop to create the visual style. Again, on a small product team, it is likely that these roles will be carried out by the same person. Programmer contempt for 'designers' often seems ubiquitous. Maybe it is only until they have worked with a proper professional.
fidanov 14y ago
When I read this I remembered when few years ago DHH(also from 37signals) was talking that there is no place for the "The Idea Guy" in today's companies. Similarly, that is what I think about software/web designers not been able to implement their own designs, due to the lack of knowledge about programming. You don't need to be an expert to implement them. All you need is a basic knowledge of the platform for which you are building the design. I realize that acquiring this knowledge may be difficult, and it may take some time. The same goes for programmers who don't know how to design the interface of their products. They don't need to become experts but they can teach themselves the basics. I was in such situation with time and experiments my designs improved, but I am not an expert. To sum up, "Dancing Without A Partner", you don't need a partner for this dance, you just need to learn a little hip hope and turn on the music, everything else its just an excuse for laziness.

17 points by mh_ 14y ago

Do you mean use something like a BaaS?

UX design tools and processes are definitely lagging behind right now. The annotated wireframe document created in Visio, InDesign, OmniGraffle, etc. is still the norm. The closest thing we have to a solid prototyping tool is Axure (http://www.axure.com/ http://www.axure.com/), but creating anything beyond the equivalent of clickable JPGs is kludgy to say the least. Kids fresh out of HCI and interaction design school are close to useless, because they have no experience having their designs developed. Seeing them interact with (frustrated) seasoned developers can be very painful. UX designers should learn enough about programming to be dangerous for many reasons, but hand coding prototypes probably isn't ever going to be a scalable answer. I fantasize about working on a next gen UX prototyping tool all the time, but, to use the article's metaphor, I don't have a dance partner for that.

gercheq 14y ago
There are several UI prototype builders out there. Most of them are built on top of Twitter's Bootstrap. ie. http://jetstrap.com/ http://jetstrap.com/
timjaeger 14y ago
Look more people need to be coding and understand as much as possible about frameworks, databases, javascript, RoR, NodeJS, responsive design, dev time frames, Agile, etc. I am a UX Designer who can code (Rails, Javascript, CSS etc.) and it embarasses me when I talk to others that are just 'wireframe monkeys'. If you don't know HTML how can anyone trust your designs? I can only take so much - UX people need to step up and LEARN this stuff. If you don't you will just pave your own path to irrelevancy. If it were up to me there would be some other way to describe UX ppl that know tech and those that can merely hit something with the pretty stick and leave devs scratching their heads...
- psweber 14y ago
  I mostly agree with you. Many UX professionals I have worked with are almost proud about the fact that they don't have hands on experience with software development or visual design. They are the worst of both worlds. That being said, I don't think that a UX designer should spend the average day working on the nuts and bolts of development. A structural architect builds models and then collaborates with someone with more expertise who is in charge of the real building process. The comparison isn't perfect, but I think that as our industry matures, it will more closely resemble that. UX architects need a better modeling tool.

billyjobob 14y ago

I always thought a web designer was someone who knew HTML, a Mac UI designer was someone who knew ObjC and XCode, etc. But apparently it's now normal for a professional 'designer' to be an artist who just knows Photoshop, who then hands over to a programmer who recreates the whole design from scratch in code!

ovi256 14y ago
Well, in French web agencies, there's a third person in the middle, called an "HTML integrator" who gets the photoshop sketches and makes them into HTML, CSS and static images, who then hands this to the programmers who plugs the dynamic bits in there. I think this is responsible in a large part for the design tropes of the French web. Newer/hip startups don't do this, they use designers who write HTML/CSS, like the rest of the world.
psweber 14y ago
The larger the organization, the less true that is. If you are working on a small product team, you should most definitely get your hands dirty with (some of) the front end development. If you work at an agency or as a freelance consultant and are switching between projects for the web, iOS, Android and other platforms, it makes more sense to pair up with a specialist. There is also a big different between a user experience architect and an art director. The UX architect plans the system to meet the user and business needs (with an understanding of the technical ramifications of interaction design decisions). An art director works in photoshop to create the visual style. Again, on a small product team, it is likely that these roles will be carried out by the same person. Programmer contempt for 'designers' often seems ubiquitous. Maybe it is only until they have worked with a proper professional.

fidanov 14y ago

When I read this I remembered when few years ago DHH(also from 37signals) was talking that there is no place for the "The Idea Guy" in today's companies. Similarly, that is what I think about software/web designers not been able to implement their own designs, due to the lack of knowledge about programming. You don't need to be an expert to implement them. All you need is a basic knowledge of the platform for which you are building the design. I realize that acquiring this knowledge may be difficult, and it may take some time. The same goes for programmers who don't know how to design the interface of their products. They don't need to become experts but they can teach themselves the basics. I was in such situation with time and experiments my designs improved, but I am not an expert. To sum up, "Dancing Without A Partner", you don't need a partner for this dance, you just need to learn a little hip hope and turn on the music, everything else its just an excuse for laziness.