dealing w/ blind developers
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- fourth
How do you guys deal with developers that don't see your designs as you do? I'm not trying to slam my devs as I know they work really hard and don't have the same eye that we have for it.
for example when you show them an apple and they give you an orange in return and can't tell the difference?
- doesnotexist0
don't work with them, pretty much how i deal
it can destroy the project
- 20020
very detailed specs
- ukit20
If they are a front end developer, they should be building your design accurately, that's their job after all.
- sarahfailin0
- I laughed way too hard at thisKnuckleberry
- lolmoldero
- haha, clever.********
- bored2death0
I was going to commend your trolling but, alas, you disappoint me.
- Milan0
I have the opposite problem. As a front-end developer, I feel like I know more about user interface design, layout, typography and hierarchy than the web designers I work with.
- <<BabySnakes
- Could be true too.********
- That's funny.monospaced
- That can happen at agencies that really silo their designers.studderine
- <<< oh god, this!!!IRNlun6
- ...hence the problem fourth illustrates. Oranges are better than apples so screw you designers.monkeyshine
- 20020
^ worst person to work with
- ********0
Don't hire a developer with no design sense.
They will cut corners that make sense to them or not be as careful with the type. Not that they're lazy, but more that they don't know.
- doesnotexist0
^ which eats up a lot of time to correct and then you have that battle to wage instead of just overseeing the damn thing.
- doesnotexist0
if you know people at digital agencies/studios, like a project manager, ask them to refer a good developer to you. changed my life.
- hotroddy0
Learn css and html. If you submit designs as HTML files it shouldn't be an issue.
- On to the next project...studderine
- Most devs I know will just rewrite your code from scratch so it's to their standards and they understand it.
monNom - So this might be a waste of time. I do it, but it might be a waste of time vs. a dev with an eye for designmonNom
- sublocked0
^ In 2014 there are still designers, designing for the web that DON'T KNOW HTML?
- 20020
^^ and have your dev critize how shiity your CSS and HTML codes are
and they have to start from scratch
and since the web site is dynamically generated, the work you did is worthless
and you get a ror book
- orrinward20
What kind of blindness are you talking about? Producing visually different or experientially different products?
I've found a lot of backend devs, even very good ones, will have "Pixelexia" when it comes to any frontend work. You'll send them a mock of a page with buttons with arrow icons in it, and sometimes the arrows will be added but to the left rather than right of the button.
I find they very much see things as accurate when things are organised well in the DOM, and this is something that should really be handled by a frontend developer or the designer can tweak.
With experiential changes, like building a feature whereby a user can create a draft article and send it to another user to review, I've found a combination of a concise technical brief and an interactive Balsamiq works well.
When I give a technical brief I usually give a user role ability document (user stories I uually write as SPEC/Cucumber) and a view-by-view functionality document, e.g
Scenario: Author writes and article and submits it
As an Author
When I login to the platform
And I click "Start a draft"
And I should see a Textarea with a class ".draft-article"
And I fill it with "Foo"
And I click "Submit"
Then I should be on the "Thank You" page----
View-by-view:
Article create view:
- Accessible by authors only
- Allows a user to write an article using WYSIWYG
- Allows a user to save an article as draft
- Allows a user to submit an article for approval
- Returns a validation error if the submitted article is less than 100 words
- Allows a user to visit to their articles catalogue
- Al_dizzle0
You deal with them with respectfully, but insistently.
- fourth0
Great points but all, BUT...
1. I do know HTML/css but the project is iOS so I'm pretty unfamiliar how everything is styled exactly (working on it now, funny how I still have no idea after a lot of research)
2. I give highly detailed documentation of each screen- all the typography, sizes, spacing, margins, etc are all there. It's a 100+ page document. I also give hi fi prototypes of a lot of the transitions between screens and interactions with certain elements (this is the biggest joke to them).
3. I'm stuck with these devs. I've been asking for more of a "front end iOS developer" or more of an interactive dev with not much luck.
When I was at an agency I never had a problem with this as there was always a front end dev, I knew CSS pretty well, and best of all: design shops have to build it the way it was designed. I'm no longer at an agency, I'm working client side for a large enterprise product and I'm literally the first visual designer in the company (although there are a few very good UX'ers in the company). So I'm in a pickle
- monNom0
This article is pretty much exactly about what you describe.
http://alistapart.com/article/be…They hired a designer to make their product better, but they won't give you the authority to actually implement your expertise, because they have no idea what a designer does.
Talk to your boss. Somebody needs to be the product manager. If they don't have the design vocabulary, maybe YOU need more authority to get the product THEY WANT developed.
(as for transitions and interactions, maybe they're trying to do the least costly, most maintainable, most iOS native, and most performant approach. Just playing devils advocate, but you should ask them why they won't follow your prototypes. There might be valid reasons you aren't aware of.)