How to Bridge the Gap Between Web Designing and Development?

This has been one of the major concerns for IT firms between these two domains. As we know, a designer and a developer, both play a diverse role in a product. Thus, it becomes necessary to align them on the same path. For instance, elements such as arranging the menu or color palettes are being taken care of by designers whereas, the back-end code, and to make each element in a working condition, developers are required.

As per a survey, this gap between these two generally occurs in the waterfall process. Therefore, once the designers finish their work, they simply hand it over to the developer without the intention of working over it again but this might not fit in at the developer’s end which results in complete chaos. Here, in this article, the gap which we are going to discuss is somehow related to coordination between web designers and developers which you must have faced during any project.  

Let’s take a look at the 5 best possible ways to bridge the gap between Web Designing & Development.  

1. An Issue With the Communication

Communication is the major factor among web designers and developers which creates a barrier in a project. So, it’s better to keep them in the same loop for a clean flow of communication and in this way, both of them will be well aware of what’s going on inside the project. Developers may discuss with designers any issue in implementation so that designers can work again to provide the required changes for developers. It could be any button placement, border alignment, color palette, etc.

Apart from this, make sure that you’re making the following changes in your team;

• Communication guidelines must be shared with everyone right at the beginning of the project every day so that both, developers and designers are well aware of the ongoing changes.
• Regular feedback, team meetings with everyone till the project ends are necessary to share the vision and to know their thought process, and most importantly this helps in making sure that they all are well aligned.

2. Balancing Team  

Most of the IT firms follow waterfall methodology in their workforce which means that information flows within the teams (designer, development, analysis, testing, etc.) like a waterfall and constant communication isn’t really required in this method. Thus, it creates chaos among developers and designers. For example, designers complete their tasks and hand over their initial design to developers, and if developers feel something isn’t feasible then they’ll again send it back to designers.  

Bringing developers into the mix when designers are just getting started is one strategy to bridge the gap between web designing and the development team. As soon as developers will be started interacting with the designer, it will be helpful and will fade away most of the confusion between them till the project ends.  

3. Clear Concept of Technology

It is quite obvious that you cannot create everything with the help of CSS. If you’re familiar with CSS then you must have an idea about it. Generally, designers are unaware of this fact and they try to juggle it, and if they aren’t getting success they even seek the help of photoshop which leads to another issue. Apart from this, there are several other issues when it comes to conceptual facts:

• Designers and developers can have some understanding issues because you cannot expect your designer to do the developer’s task.
• Sharing common ideas or any suggestions can help in building the communication gap among them. For example, give your designers some information on the fundamentals of coding so they can see if their ideas can be simply transformed into code.

To build a bridge among developers and designers, you can brief your developers about the ideal design by providing them with resources. This will help them in understanding the concept of design and will eventually promote building an efficient team to prevent any obstacles in the future.

4. Share Trends

It requires a great commitment while delivering a project. Both your developers and designers have to be supportive and well-aligned right from the start. Besides, it is also mandated for you to keep your team updated with the latest trends. Designers are, by nature, user-centric and thus, it is a must for them to know the latest trend in the market which will attract the end-users. In short, your designer understands the importance of a product and especially how it will affect the users.  

However, these are the following few things that can be done to bridge the gap between web designers and developers:

• Your designers can share articles, documentation, or new trends within the team so that the whole team is well aware of the shared knowledge.
• Developers can share their views on the trends or the shared ideas of how they’re going to execute.

5. Easy Hand-off

Involving your whole team right from the beginning is a must and will support you in the long run. Thus, each process is very crucial in a project and when it comes to hands-off from designer to developer, it’s your designers’ responsibility to organize each file and design accordingly along with its compatibility. It enables developers to work without any chaos and then providing a well-aligned design to your developers can help them to focus on making the product better.

Avoid or minimize any issues with the developer’s handoff by:

• Designers need to make sure that their designs are consistent in all aspects (font, size, palette, etc.)
• Following a strict style guide can help in maintaining your brand’s identity and by doing this, your developer can work more easily.
• Adding walk-through notes comments to designs: Developers can utilize Sketch, one of the numerous practical annotation tools, to discover differences with particular visual references and associated notes.

Conclusion:

Following the launch of each project, a review should be conducted to determine what worked best throughout the project and what improvements could be implemented in the future. Find a method and procedure that works best for your team in your situation. To help break down silos and keep your projects on schedule, implement a basic set of communication guidelines across development teams.

The problem is that if you don’t start using the tips right away, you might never be able to bridge the gap between web developers and designers. So, on your next endeavor, consider these tips and enjoy the taste of success!