• Home
• Magazine
• Blog & Podcast
• Idealog TV
• Directory
• Celsias

• Business Magazine of the Year MPA Awards 2007, 2008 & 2009 Business Website of the Year MPA Awards 2009

Making the designer–developer relationship work - Rubin/Smith

Steve Smith is a recognized authority on front-end development and interface design. He is an entrepreneur, founder of Ordered List, and co-founder of Sidebar Creative, both of which are outlets for his professional work. Dan Rubin is a highly accomplished user interface designer and usability consultant, with over ten years of experience as a leader in the fields of web standards and usability, specifically focusing on the use of XHTML and CSS to streamline development and improve accessibility.

Too often, say Smith and Rubin, there is an artificial divide between developers and designers. The goal is to understand the silly gap that exists and to learn to work together to create better outcomes. They played some role plays to show the preconceptions that both sides of the fence often have. Developers don't feel that they're included in the process enough while designers have a tendency to be control freaks. The fact is both parties have the same target—a good end result for the users.

Some things to help the process - for the developers;

1. Brainstorm togther at the beginning of the project
2. Get input from the developers during the design process - ask the right questions
3. Review design internally before presenting

and for the designers:

1. Discuss problems to be solved by design at the beginnning
2. Evaluate solutions during internal design reviews
3. Explain how you arrive at design decisions

They gave some tips for developers approaching the inevitable design problems:

1. Speak up—let designers know what's causing the problems
2. Decide together if the functionality is really needed
3. Often the extra work results in a better product

and when developers don't deliver what the designer wanted, tips for dealing with that:

1. Understand the constraints of the medium
2. Explain why you want things a certain way
3. Find compromise when things aren't perfect

So a few of solutions that Smith and Dan came up with:

• Do collective brainstomring at the start of a project
• Blur the lines between Design & Development
• Encourage collaboration
• Learn how to trust
• Be a teacher
• Hire better people!

Comments

Steve Smith

April 17, 2009 at 12:50 pm

Thanks so much for the wrap-up! Hope you enjoyed the presentation.

Dan Rubin

April 17, 2009 at 5:03 pm

Like Steve said, thanks so much for blogging our presentation! It's always nice to see such immediacy following a session :)

Ben Kepes

April 17, 2009 at 7:56 pm

Guys - immediacy is what I do... I've got a reputation to keep up ;-)

Many thanks for a great session

Add your comment

HTML will be removed. Web addresses will be automatically hyperlinked.

Anonymous comments are queued before publishing and may take some time to appear. Or you can create an account and your comment will bypass our bureaucracy.

Your comment Name Email (hidden) Website Security check

Tweeted

Overheard

• Mark on Bigger, faster, more productive:
  Fantastic! Finally some vision in establishing a key infrastructure to support New Zealand's future prosperity and commercial competitiveness. Good work Rod, Sam and Steve - your country thanks you for your patriotism!  …
• Margaret Holmes on NZ Institute thumbs down Key's agenda:
  Unfortunately it is not just red tape - it is also the laid back kiwi attitude, compounded by educators who think achieving national standards is a bad thing.
• Tim Marshall on Smile, you’re in New Zealistan:
  The target of higher GDP per capita is all wrong. Aiming for it encourages more production and consumption, often at the expense of quality of life. We need to construct a Genuine Progress Index (GPI) to guide policy. Fr  …
• Peter McL on New note:
  "You got caught up in events at EMI.." and yet shes STILL with EMI - their local branch is distributing her new album. Wonder why?
  
  I blogged some more of Hollies comments on the details behind the fallout  …
• Phil Wollerman on Smile, you’re in New Zealistan:
  Brilliant, insightful article, VH.
  
  This situation has principally arisen because - simplistically - the world no longer wants what we are intrinsically advantaged in supplying.
  
  And yeah, it doesn't look like our co  …
• Anon on Smile, you’re in New Zealistan:
  The answer lies in a) increasing the returns to capital and b) decreasing the cost of capital. To do a) we need to reduce corporate and income taxes and replace them with land, resource, pollution and infrastructure char  …

• Back to top
• Looking for something else? Check the site map
• © 2005–2010 Idealog. All rights reserved. ISSN 1179–3465