Bridging the Gap
Bridging the ‘Handoff’
While I appreciate a lot of what is on the site, I must say; seeing the number of developer complaints make me very sad. I also noticed this trend at a recent meetup I attended. A large number of designers; UX, visual, IxD, voiced a number of complaints about developers. I’ve heard the same from developers about designers. I think this is an artifact of traditional waterfall approaches and the ‘hand off’.
If we want to grow as teams and communities I think we need to stop complaining about each other and finding ways to bridge the gap. Sometimes an overly decorative design really does affect performance, and a slow experience is a poor experience.
One of the worst offenders of this point of view is the clients from hell blog. More often than not, the issue is not the client. It’s the designer not providing clear instruction and having a feeling of entitlement that puts them above the client.
I’ve also noticed that a number of thought leaders in this area have found their success by getting their teams to work together. Ethan Marcotte and Karen McGrane; the host of theresponsive web design podcast, interview team members to often speak very highly of their counterparts, be it design or development.
Some of the best teams I’ve gotten to experience work in a very close manner. I believe the popular term form them teams right now is a ‘lean’ team. These teams work together to produce the best product, the design team understand the underlying structure of how the web works. Developers can not only give input on design decisions but are often invited into design reviews. In my experience this cooperation produces better results and happier teams.
Keep building better.