5 Ideas that Developers Wish Designers Understood
Bill Scott, Netflix Director of UI Engineering, on what engineers wish designers understood:
“…After listening to hundreds of comments and reflecting on my own experience I boiled it down to five simple ideas that developers wish designers understood.”
- The site is dynamic. Photoshop is static—the site is not. The site is dynamic in content, layout and interaction. It’s too easy to forget all of the details that come about when users get involved. But engineers end up having to fill in the gap where the designer has not accounted for all of these dynamic concerns.
- Technology is critical. Web design without technology is just art. You must understand the magic that gets it on the site. Designers that “get” the unique challenges of getting their designs live can make smart choices up front and anticipate problems or even better arrive at more elegant solutions.
- Components are key. Developers think in terms of reuse. Designers often think in terms of new ideas. To be effective you must plan for the common elements and interactions as this will map into a better experience as well as a more efficient use of engineering time.
- Partnership is imperative. It’s tempting to design and toss over the wall. But the real magic happens during collaboration. Communication and constant iterative engagement are key to fielding a great user experience.
- “Yes We Can!” Interface engineers have the power to say “yes” more than ever. And there are a lot of technology advances coming that if you are aware of as a designer you will enlarge your toolkit of tricks. Good interface engineers see problems as challenges and instead of trying to whittle your designs out of existence they will try to make it happen. Good engineers want to say “Yes”.
You can read the whole article on Rosenfeld Media.
