Comments on: The Designer and the Developer

By: freddy

freddy — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 22:26:00 +0000

Great article. Designers for today’s web need to think like developers as well (and vice versa) in order to stay afloat. I don’t believe anyone who considers themselves a designer can get away with no knowledge of XHTML & CSS standards as well as the various common client side dev tools out there, such as jQuery and Prototype. The line between designer & developer has certainly been blurred in the last few years. And that’s a good thing.

By: Paul Alagna

Paul Alagna — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 04:29:35 +0000

let me add one more. STAY CURRENT.
this product of art and science, this medium we call the web changes by the hour. designers HAVE to look for that pop and sizzle that sells a web site, developers HAVE to find methods to get that message into scripts. As a developer, one colleague of mine keeps a journal of designs, or web pages he admires. as a developer I write notes about them. what I can do, how i think it might work, what I need to learn. weather permitting, we meet once a quarter to review. the deal is dinner for four for every new page I can bring to life.
I can hear the squishing of boiling grey matter now. “didn’t they hire you to perform that task?..” “aren’t you responsible for your education?”.. “why should the designer pay..” Truth of the matter is that we both get something from this. the wives get a dinner out, I get to focus my efforts, make bold promises, and reach a little higher, he gets his ART closer his wishes, and we both advance our careers. you didn’t think the company really cared about your career did you? even if you own the company, each project demands more of the ho-hum, push this boulder uphill, get it done spirit from us NOT, i repeat NOT to be a beacon for your career.

By: Michael Risser

Michael Risser — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 03:07:18 +0000

As someone who is both a designer and a developer, I can attest to the truthfulness and correctness of these tips. But I would add one more.

Work together to try to find a compromise. Often times from a developer standpoint a certain design element may not seem possible, while from a designer standpoint a developer’s assertion may not seem reasonable. The truth is that if you work together, you may find a way to actually make that design element or developer assertion work, or you may even find something that works even better.

Working together and listening carefully and objectively will, with time, make for a better team as each side learns a little more about the processes and requirements of the other. When a designer learns a little more about what can and can’t be done, he/she will begin producing better designs, while the reverse is also true.

Always remember, there is no room in a successful venture for an us against them mentality. The mentality should be one of team work.

By: Ben Buchanan

Ben Buchanan — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 09:42:25 +0000

One thing I’d add for designers: tiny text is not cool, especially not for body text. While it might look nice, it’s horrible to read. While there’s no specific rule about how big is “big enough”, I’d suggest as a baseline “at least 30% bigger than the average designer seems to think is big enough” :)

By: GermWorks

GermWorks — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 03:28:28 +0000

Top instructions and I know for my business we will have to follow this more closely…