Buy now — FREE

Sep 1, 2023

Sep 1, 2023

Sep 1, 2023

5 mins

5 mins

5 mins

UX, UI, Design system

UX, UI, Design system

UX, UI, Design system

Transforming The Relationship Between Designers And Developers

Transforming The Relationship Between Designers And Developers

Transforming The Relationship Between Designers And Developers

Is there such a thing as harmony between designers and developers in the workplace, and if so, how can it be achieved? In this article, Chris Day explores the challenges of effective collaboration, outlines the key factors at play, and (hopefully!) empowers you to find the right solutions to help you and your team deliver to their full potential.

Is there such a thing as harmony between designers and developers in the workplace, and if so, how can it be achieved? In this article, Chris Day explores the challenges of effective collaboration, outlines the key factors at play, and (hopefully!) empowers you to find the right solutions to help you and your team deliver to their full potential.

Is there such a thing as harmony between designers and developers in the workplace, and if so, how can it be achieved? In this article, Chris Day explores the challenges of effective collaboration, outlines the key factors at play, and (hopefully!) empowers you to find the right solutions to help you and your team deliver to their full potential.

Image for transforming the relationship between designers and developers
Image for transforming the relationship between designers and developers
Image for transforming the relationship between designers and developers

Throughout the last two decades, we have witnessed the astonishing evolution of creative tooling, methodologies, and working practices. However, after all of this advancement, we still have clients asking to make the logo bigger, designers despairing as their creations are built with not quite the exact amount of bottom-margin, and developers going crazy about last-minute design changes.


Quite frankly, I’ve had enough. So join me in a parenting-style-hands-on-hips pose of disdain, roll up your sleeves, and let’s fix this mess together, once and for all!


Why Is This Still An Important Topic?

Ultimately, the quality of your designer-developer relations will have a vital impact on the quality of your product. In turn, this will impact customer experience (be it internal or external).


Customer experience is everything, and these days the smallest of chinks can create an even bigger dent in the business itself.


It may not even be an obvious or noticeable issue. Over time, those moments of misunderstanding in your team could result in a series of micro-inconsistencies that are felt by the customer yet sneak underneath the radar of quality assurance.


Perhaps you’ll catch these things during user research, but in this scenario, you’d be playing catch-up instead of advancing forward.


To cut a long story short, it could be slowing you down in the race against your competitors and costing you more money in the process.


So, with that in mind, let’s get stuck into the techniques that can steer us in the right direction and inspire everyone on the team to deliver the slickest of user experiences together.

Throughout the last two decades, we have witnessed the astonishing evolution of creative tooling, methodologies, and working practices. However, after all of this advancement, we still have clients asking to make the logo bigger, designers despairing as their creations are built with not quite the exact amount of bottom-margin, and developers going crazy about last-minute design changes.


Quite frankly, I’ve had enough. So join me in a parenting-style-hands-on-hips pose of disdain, roll up your sleeves, and let’s fix this mess together, once and for all!


Why Is This Still An Important Topic?

Ultimately, the quality of your designer-developer relations will have a vital impact on the quality of your product. In turn, this will impact customer experience (be it internal or external).


Customer experience is everything, and these days the smallest of chinks can create an even bigger dent in the business itself.


It may not even be an obvious or noticeable issue. Over time, those moments of misunderstanding in your team could result in a series of micro-inconsistencies that are felt by the customer yet sneak underneath the radar of quality assurance.


Perhaps you’ll catch these things during user research, but in this scenario, you’d be playing catch-up instead of advancing forward.


To cut a long story short, it could be slowing you down in the race against your competitors and costing you more money in the process.


So, with that in mind, let’s get stuck into the techniques that can steer us in the right direction and inspire everyone on the team to deliver the slickest of user experiences together.

Throughout the last two decades, we have witnessed the astonishing evolution of creative tooling, methodologies, and working practices. However, after all of this advancement, we still have clients asking to make the logo bigger, designers despairing as their creations are built with not quite the exact amount of bottom-margin, and developers going crazy about last-minute design changes.


Quite frankly, I’ve had enough. So join me in a parenting-style-hands-on-hips pose of disdain, roll up your sleeves, and let’s fix this mess together, once and for all!


Why Is This Still An Important Topic?

Ultimately, the quality of your designer-developer relations will have a vital impact on the quality of your product. In turn, this will impact customer experience (be it internal or external).


Customer experience is everything, and these days the smallest of chinks can create an even bigger dent in the business itself.


It may not even be an obvious or noticeable issue. Over time, those moments of misunderstanding in your team could result in a series of micro-inconsistencies that are felt by the customer yet sneak underneath the radar of quality assurance.


Perhaps you’ll catch these things during user research, but in this scenario, you’d be playing catch-up instead of advancing forward.


To cut a long story short, it could be slowing you down in the race against your competitors and costing you more money in the process.


So, with that in mind, let’s get stuck into the techniques that can steer us in the right direction and inspire everyone on the team to deliver the slickest of user experiences together.

It may not even be an obvious or noticeable issue. Over time, those moments of misunderstanding in your team could result in a series of micro-inconsistencies that are felt by the customer yet sneak underneath the radar of quality assurance.

Working Culture

In my opinion, process improvements may only get you so far. The working culture in your organization will heavily influence the output of your digital teams. Whilst the subject of culture is incredibly vast, there are a few key elements that I think are hugely important to foster a greater level of collaboration between design and developers:


  1. Alignment on the goals of the project and/or business.


  2. Encouraging a more “robotic” attitude to feedback. Of course, you can be passionate about what you do, but when it comes to feedback, I always try to encourage people to respond with logic before emotion.


  3. Communication: Ultimately, you have to trust people to be proactive. You can have a great process, but the gaps and edge cases will still slip through the net unless you have people who are open and ready to prod each other when issues arise.


This may seem like common sense to many of us, but many organizations (big ones, too!) still operate without this crucial foundation to motivate and support their teams.


However, it is essential to be honest with yourself and consider the role you play within your team. Even if you think you have already fulfilled these criteria, I’d encourage you to investigate this further to ensure everyone feels the same. It can be as simple as having a 121 discussion with each member of the team, or you could even send out short questionnaires to gauge your workplace’s suitability for an optimal designer and developer collaboration.


You might be surprised by what you hear back from people. Treat any criticism as gold dust. It’s an opportunity to improve.


Once you’ve created this foundation within your organization, it’s important to maintain and protect it. Keep reviewing it regularly, and make sure that anyone joining the team will be able to fit in. This leads us nicely on to…



This article is from SmashingMagazine and the author is Chris.

Previous post

Image for how to run UX research without users

How To Run UX Research Without Access To Users

Sep 1, 2023

Image for how to run UX research without users

How To Run UX Research Without Access To Users

Sep 1, 2023

Next post

Image for best practices for naming design tokens.

Best Practices For Naming Design Tokens, Components And Variables

Sep 1, 2023

Image for best practices for naming design tokens.

Best Practices For Naming Design Tokens, Components And Variables

Sep 1, 2023