Why Designers & Developers Must Work Together

Often these individuals work apart while working on the very same project. The designer works to create elements and color palettes and typography that looks great, while the developer codes and prepares the material for web publishing. And this can cause discord between the designer and web developer and in the final design itself. If designers and developers work together on projects from start to finish, the result is a more cohesive web project with great aesthetics, user interface and clean code. There is less work and rework during the collaborative process, hopefully resulting in a project that can be completed in less time.Traditionally web designers and we developers have been separate job titles. Typically web designers use graphic design software such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to create what websites and elements will look like. This aesthetic is then coded using HTML, JavaScript, jQuery, CSS and other programming languages by a web developer to make everything work on the web.While designers and developers may often work from separate rooms or even countries, each needs the skills of the other to create a complete website. So they have to work together. Pros of Working Together Simply, the biggest reason that designers and developers should work together is to create a more complete web project. From the look to interactions to experience, the project will only bet better when designers and developers collaborate. (And it’s almost impossible not to these days.) And while we are talking about designers and developers working together, don’t forget to invite interaction designers to the party as well. Collaboration plenty of other benefits:

• A second set of eyes to look everything over and find flaws or mistakes
• More creative brainstorming and design
• A more complete experience, because designers can understand what the developer is capable of creating
• A more cohesive finished product, where all the parts look like they belong and interactions fit the aesthetic
• Merges ideas for a more rounded vision of what a project is supposed to be
• Fosters focus on the mission and goals of the design project.

Cons of Working Together

• There can be some costs associated with having everyone getting together at the same time, especially if workers aren’t typically in the same location. Use tools for teleconferencing and online sharing to communicate when you can’t get everyone in the same room at the same time.
• Sometimes people will disagree or just won’t get along. But we’re all grown-ups, right? We can work through it.
One of the greatest bits of advice for designers and developers is not all that new, but is still relevant. The “Manifesto for Agile Software Development” highlights four principles that all web designers, web developers and interaction designers should live by.
• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan.
To help bridge the gap between designers and developers and to better work in concert, both types of web professionals need to speak the language of the other. Designers and developers should start to expand their skill sets. Every designer and developer should have a basic understanding and knowledge of:
• Design principles, such as color, space and typography
• Optimal image formats and sizing
• Basic understanding of HTML and CSS
• Use of web fonts
• Trends in design and development
• Understanding of user wants and needs
• Grids, framework and wire framing.
The question really starts to become less about why designers and developers should work together, but how they can better work and understand the duties of the other. At the end of the day both jobs have a singular goal: To create a phenomenal website. The thing we really need to start thinking about is designing development. Because the reality is that all development is design and web design is development. You can’t have one without the other, and as web design becomes increasingly complicated this will become even more true. So maybe what we need is a new job description or title that shows that web designers and developers are linked.