Sometimes, web designers and developers seem like they’re from different planets.
They often speak in different languages. Developers concern themselves with front-end code, back-end code and development patterns, while designers have a track on aesthetic principles and user experience and interaction practices. Their workspaces also look very, very different, we can tell you.
Still, it’s very important for developers to be involved during the design process on any web development project.
That’s not how it’s done everywhere. But at Adage Technologies, we consider it an absolute must. Having a developer involved in the design process for your next project can help you:
Stay realistic about time and cost
If no other factor here jumps out to a business developing a new website or app, this one should – time and money talk.
Web projects – same as home improvement projects and public works projects, most infamously – can quickly run way past deadline and over-budget if reasonable expectations aren’t established from the get-go.
This risk is elevated even further when one company takes on design duties and an entirely different firm is tasked with developing. What’s new, cool and exciting from a user-experience perspective may be expensive, laborious and a pain in the butt when it comes time to actually build a project out.
Having a developer in the room, on a call or in an email chain during the design process effectively inserts a voice of reason into the equation and keeps everyone on the same page.
Get buy-in from the development team
Our developers have great ideas. It’s by far one of Adage Technologies’ best assets.
Hiding developers away until the design process is done doesn’t make much sense, then. We wouldn’t expect great development work if our developers’ first insight into a particular project was wading through a tack of demands and requirements they had little or nothing to do with compiling.
This scenario is very difficult to avoid when different vendors handle the design and development phases of a particular project.
Developers that take ownership of the process and are plugged into the needs of the customer are at a great advantage when it comes to actually building a solution.
Improve the hand-off from design to development
The importance of the project hand-off can’t be overstated.
The transition from design to development, if handled incorrectly, can be one of the biggest pain-points in any project.
When Adage’s developers finally get down to business and start building out the ideas fleshed out in the design phase, they’re already acquainted with the needs and intent of the project. There is very little need for any sort of catch-up, so it doesn’t take long to mobilize the development resources to make the project come to life.
When designers and developers are compartmentalized and kept separate, it can make this step very choppy, sometimes disastrously so.
