Working in a technology office that places a large emphasis on design, we have a larger than normal ratio of designers to developers.

I was listening to an interview between Joe Stump (lead architect) and Daniel Burka (creative director) of Digg, which made me think a lot about the designer, developer relationship.

This relationship is often a strained one, often there is clear separation of teams with designer and developers often working in separate offices.

I am generalising somewhat but developers tend to be more pragmatic and see the whole picture, where as designers are much more creative and grand with their visions. There needs to be a compromise in order for the two teams to work well together.

Here are my tips for a productive working relationship between designers and developers:

1. Sit Together

If you all work in the same space then it is much easier to see what the other team do, and appreciate the skills that they have. You will also get to know the designers personalities and that helps when communicating with them.

2. Collaborate start to finish

From the very start of the project designers and developers should work together. This ensures that the best ideas are highlighted, and there are no nasty surprises later in the project, when the developers see a signed off design and freak out as it cannot be done.

3. Developer sign off

Any design that gets sent to the client has to be signed off by a developer first, so they can assess whether the design is actually possible, and can be built in the time line specified.

4. Keep talking

Always keep talking, have round table meetings, cross team brainstorms and make sure you developers keep your techie speak to a minimum.

5. Educate each other

The more you can educate designers on what is and isn’t possible the easier it will be the next time, simply saying that it cannot be done is not acceptable, always give reasons.

6. Mutual respect is the key

Both teams must respect and work together if you want to create an amazing product. Each team cannot do it by themselves.

7. Naive knowledge

I have often seen very elegant solutions suggested by designers as they do not really understand the technical points. Sometimes developers can over analyse and be too risk adverse.

8. Pause before you speak

Listen to what the other party is saying and then pause before you reply, really consider their point of view. This is universal for all teams.

9. Don’t say no – developer’s default response tends to be “No”

We have all done it and it is not healthy, remember there are shades of no, only use a flat out no if it really isn’t possible. Most developers love a challenge and no should not be part of their vocabulary.

10. Compromise

There is always middle ground, if you are asked to build the impossible, give options and suggest alternatives.

11. Don’t be afraid to challenge

Don’t be afraid to challenge each other ideas even if they are not in your field. I often challenge a design that I see even though I am not a designer. However you should always defer to the experts, at the end of the say if I challenge a design but the designers over rule me, then fine they are the experts in design.

Conclusion

We have a lot of healthy banter between the development and design teams, words like spot uv, belly band and matt lam, always make me laugh. Recently the developers were talking about extreme programming, this prompted the designers to come up with extreme design, which involved designing while snow boarding.

As a developer I personally hold designers in very high regard and have huge respect for their skills and expertise, I have learnt a lot from them, and hopefully I have taught them something in return.

Developer and designer can work very well together, given the right environment and ethos, and when they do, amazing things happen.