The key role and importance of communication between designers and developers

Author: Wirex

Compiled by: ChainCatcher

How to Build Productive Relationships Between Designers and Developers and Why It Matters

As a product designer at Wirex, my experience is valuable for both design novices and managers, and I want to discuss the importance of communication between designers and developers.

Design is not a singular action but a complex communication system aimed at solving specific problems. In design, much attention is focused on the issues of communication between designers and clients and users, and most articles on the subject concentrate on user needs and business goals. However, one aspect that is often overlooked is the communication between designers and developers.

Design is a balance between user needs, business requirements, and technical feasibility.

Balancing the needs of design and development teams is crucial; a lack of coordination between them can waste time and reduce productivity. There have been instances where a specific design was handed over to developers, but due to a lack of prior communication, the design ended up taking too long to create, was too expensive to implement, or was simply not feasible. This means we either have to develop new solutions or it won't work at all.

This creates a trade-off: increase work time or decrease usability?

The debate over whether designers should be able to write code is endless, but at the very least, it is essential for designers to understand how the product works. If designers have any doubts about certain features or technical capabilities, they can ask developers for clarification early on.

By understanding the technical capabilities of the product and involving developers in the design concept development process, it provides us as designers with more opportunities from which everyone can benefit. Developers have the chance to express their thoughts, and designers gain the necessary information to create products with good usability while optimizing workflows.

First, style guides are a great way to communicate with developers. Color schemes, typography, grids, components, and all their states. However, given the rapid growth of the internet, social networks, and mobile applications, many businesses cannot operate without a website. This is where the fun for designers lies. As businesses now require hundreds of screen resolutions and mobile browsers, designers must consider the adaptive behavior of all relevant elements to design responsive and easily scalable components. Consider various screen resolutions and device breakpoints, and clarify with developers whether the website will be adaptive or if there will be separate mobile and web versions.

No matter what stage you are at, whether developing new designs or building on existing ones, it is never too late to consider all states in which the system operates. This could be service messages, server errors, etc. It is important to consider not only user flows but also potential error states and issues that may arise.

In general, to create interface component states, you only need to look at Material or iOS Design Kit, but only your developers know the complexities of your system's behavior and can tell you what to pay attention to.

What steps have we taken at Wirex to improve communication processes with developers?

Why is cross-team collaboration essential?

Cross-team collaboration significantly speeds up design time, meaning designers do not have to worry about scenarios like server connection error screens being hastily invented by developers.

The more questions raised at the outset, the fewer issues arise during the design presentation phase and the development process. As a result, we ultimately save time and achieve more qualitative designs.

There are many books that offer advice on design, but they often only describe ideal scenarios. They rarely include situations that cannot be implemented due to technical or legal reasons, and designers often have little time to explore other answers. Therefore, as designers, it is important for us to gather as much information as possible early on so that we can create perfect designs under imperfect conditions.

It is important to remember that the goal of a designer's work is not to satisfy oneself but to make high-quality, well-considered decisions. So, in short, make sure you find answers, listen to advice, and accept any information. Sometimes, even the simplest ideas can become the catalyst for achieving the ideal solution.