When developers are not included in the conversation, what may seem like a small change in the designers eyes, may very well have a huge impact on the website and its performance. In addition, a lack of communication can also “lead to designs that are impossible to build, designs that introduce unnecessary technical complications, endless back and forth between the designer and developer as they struggle to fix problems created by the designer, wasted days of revision and iteration — [and] all because the developer wasn’t consulted.”
Not only is the developer affected by this, but the client is as well. If the client signed off on designs before you showed them to the developer, it reflects poorly on the whole team if the developer isn’t able to execute the designs. “The decisions we make as designers have far greater ramifications than we are aware of.”
Developers might also suggest an idea that the designer may have never thought of or dismissed as impossible. Because many designers are not well versed in development, they don’t know all the capabilities possible. By collaborating with the development team, they could possibly take your ideas and build upon them, taking them further than you could have ever thought.
Something else to keep in mind is that developers make design decisions all the time. “…as a developer delves into building a project, they will have to make decisions that affect and refine the design. By involving the developer in the initial design discussions, they will be in a better position to fill in the blanks. And when compromises in the design must be made, they will be in a better position to make those calls.”
And finally, getting developers involved will result in the developer feeling more engaged in the project. “Too often, developers are at the end of a long chain of decision-making. Their voice isn’t heard because they’re brought into the process far too late. This leaves them feeling no ownership over the project. By bringing them in earlier, they will feel more connected to the work and more appreciated too.”
As you can see, your work flow can only benefit from collaborating with and working closely with the development team. Take a look at Matt Gemmell’s article: How Designers Can Help Developers, in which he points out some great tips.
Designers Helping:
- Use an intelligent method of version-control
- Keep your layers
- Name all your layers meaningfully
- Use groups, and do so sensibly
- Prune unneeded layers
- Use Layer Comps
- Keep everything as vectors and scaleable effects
Helping Developers:
- Learn how to preserve rounded corners while resizing
- Design at 72ppi
- Snap to whole pixels
- Always use RGB mode
- Asset-preparation is part of your job
- Be careful with fonts
- Mimic the platform’s text-rendering (where possible)
- Be sure of design dimensions
- Use the platform’s idioms
- Consider screen-size and their contexts
- Use genuine or at least realistic content
- Respect the global light source
- Make navigational or organizational constructs explicit
- Export cut-ups without compression
- Ask about shadows
- Understand how buttons are constructed
Gemmell also wrote a follow up: How Developers Can Help Designers.
References:
- http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/11/21/why-you-should-include-your-developer-in-the-design-process/
- http://mattgemmell.com/how-designers-can-help-developers/
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