Yes, it is possible! But Rome was not built in a day.
Collaboration between designers and developers has been a tough topic for years, along with the question of “which came first?”. But in fact both is a must, if you want your project to succeed. They both bring together different skills, which are both necessary to completing their missions.
As designers, we have the creative part and need to have a sense of taste and style. Whereas, developers have to have a technical and functional skill. In the end, developers make our ideas achievable.
But often, a design can look amazing as a draft or descriptive idea, but once built or displayed on screen, the result might not be as impressive.
To avoid this happening, there is only one way to make this work… good communication.
As designers, we need to involve developers in our conversations, briefs and brainstorming sessions. So, they can give feedback involving us and inform us of their required resources and techniques.
Design should be functional, have a purpose, and most of all, solve a problem.
I have learned through experience, it is our responsibility to clarify the purpose and intentions of our creations. Therefore, making it easier for a developer to understand the idea and build it as pictured. We need to see things from their perspective, which can be as simple or hard, as understanding A+B+C…
- Create simple mock-ups
- Write guidelines – detailed information related to your project or brand style and features
- Use WEB Resources – organise items such as logos, icons, fonts, HEX codes and colour values, graphics
- Utilise photos, and imagery in the proper format (resized and the resolution as required)
- Create wire-frames: Storyboards, diagrams, flow charts
- Build layouts, sample templates, reusable code, etc…
All graphic sources will help to achieve your goal
- Finally, TEST, evaluate, test, evaluate… until you are happy with the result!
And last but not least: UNDERSTAND DEVELOPMENT. As explained on The Designer’s Guide to Collaborating with Developers from UXPIN.com, you will find there is a “common and balanced language” when learning how code works rather than learning to code. As designers, we should be interested in understanding the basics of development so we have a basic understanding, that can be communicating for the purpose of delivering successful design.
Liked this blog? Check out our other design focused blogs titled Are Graphic Designers Monkeys? and Are Photographers Donkeys?
