When designers worked mostly on billboards and print adverts for campaigns, it was web developers who had the UI responsibility for websites and digital products. Now, UX and UI have become fields of their own, often consisting of professionals moving away from print media and focusing on digital design. And although UX/UI designers are familiar with the processes required to build a good website, website development and UX/UI Design are differ. Yet they are required to collaborate in order to create great digital products with meaningful user experiences. Collaboration between designers and developers is key in making a project beautiful yet functional.
Designers and developers may often clash in the way in which projects should be viewed and the steps to take within the process. Designers might think about the big picture as a whole while developers break things down into smaller pieces or sections. Therefore, the way in which they work differs, and when they work together their views can often differ too. Developers look to make codes quickly and follow agile methodology, while designers look for ways to deliver an experience to its users.
Both roles are important when it comes to developing a digital product and an understanding of each other’s space is key for a seamless design and development process. For instance, when communicating it would be useful to frame things in a way in which their counterpart will understand. This reduces the risk of information getting lost in translation or left to interpretation. Now, this doesn't mean that designers must become expert developers or that developers should now become UX/UI Designers, but to at least have a basic understanding of what each other’s role entails, the terminologies often used, or the methodologies applied. This way they are better able to understand how each one works and participate in each other’s conversations around the product design.
From an organisational or distributional perspective, there are things that can be done to make the interactions between designers and developers better. Often teams will have an uneven ratio of designers to developers or developers to designers; this means that there are big differences in skill sets, language and approaches that might create dissonance when communication processes or ideas. Both parties should be included from the very initial stages of product development all the way to the final stakeholder or client presentation. Both designers and developers should be part of strategy and planning meetings, and have an understanding of topics like budgets, goals of the project, current layouts, and be able to discuss what is currently working and what is not, as well as how to fix it. Brainstorming with cross-functional teams provides each member a window into what the others do and are therefore able to better communicate issues or ideas in the future.
Designers, for example, tend to think more in terms of qualitative data. Their main focus is the user experience. For them, adding features like animations provides a more meaningful experience to the user whereas developers look at animations in terms of coding and feasibility. Therefore, to them an animation might add extra codes that don’t provide any value from a quantitative perspective but for a designer an animation captures the attention of the user and provides a more immersive or interactive user experience.
In an age where there is basically a software, app, or programme for anything, taking advantage of technology is a huge help towards creating a better communication between developers and designers, while keeping things organised and effective. Softwares like Figma, Zeplin, and InVision can take designs and creative dynamic versions that allow for both parts to better understand what steps to take and how to improve the product.
The presence of both designers and professionals creates a balance when creating a product but their backgrounds differ and this could create a riff in the process. By integrating both roles and working together throughout the process, there is a way to have a broader and more holistic perspective of the product. But communication here is paramount. Designers should communicate their ideas to developers since they provide a different perspective and might be able to identify any technical issues that might arise. On the other hand, developers should be aware of the look and feel that a product should have since this is what will be able to reach their target users.
Savant is informed by market research and has a specialised Digital Design team with extensive experience and expertise in UX/UI talent solutions. If you are looking to build or expand your Design and/or Development function, we can support you with the best talent in the industry with experts and market leading onboarding advice and consultation. To find out more about how we can assist you, please reach out to us at technology@savantrecruitment.com
