July 22, 2011 #
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
—Albert Einstein
Cognizance & Collaboration
June 26, 2011 #
My designer friend (and former co-worker), Jay Moore, posted a link to his Facebook on Why developers cannot afford to ignore design.
Here was my initial response:
I think what’s best is each role [design and developer] is cognizant of what the other role does and has an understanding of the process. I may not know how to write a jQuery plugin from scratch or understand the specifics of a PHP module (for example), but I know by looking at it from an inquisitive mindset or asking the developer specific questions, I’ll better understand why it exists, what functions it performs, etc.
Likewise, a developer should feel free to ask the designer questions, examine their work and understand the process. A hybrid can just ask himself questions.
…it looks like magic to both sides but a lot of what comes out of design/development is experimentation, flashes of brilliance and guesswork. Both roles are not brilliant from the get-go.. you just keep working at it until that message you are trying to communicate breaks free. Even then knowing you can continue to iterate is key. And by all means, know your limitations and be open about them. Some things to remind yourself with as a design/dev: Don’t be a miracle maker, ask for help, collaborate. We don’t do enough of this and silo ourselves to the point where the lines of communication become cumbersome or non-existent.
Jay replied with:
Right back atchya man — it all seems like common sense — but sadly, it is very rare to find. it creates understanding / efficiency / & ultimately = #innovation.
My final thought:
I think because the environment that we all initially work in or learn within (art/design/illustration or development/mathematics/programming) is set up to be competitive in a way. People look out for themselves — natural human instinct — but the more you collaborate the better it’ll be for you and your co-workers, friends, family. I remember being in art class and asking the professor for more projects where I could collaborate with my classmates, there was very little of that. More silo’d projects with followup critiquing.
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May 22, 2011 #
Most of the problems facing organizations that are doing a redesign could be avoided by approaching the design differently. This means focusing on the meaningful elements in the first place and setting up metrics to properly evaluate what needs to be fixed/improved later.
