Bridging the gap between design and development can be a challenging task, but several strategies can be used to ensure that the design and development teams are working together effectively.
What exactly is the design-development divide?
Simply put, the ‘design-development gap’ refers to the communication breakdown between designers and developers during the product development process. When a designer merely “throws the design over the wall” and dusts off their hands, the situation becomes especially severe in businesses where waterfall techniques predominate.
In this case, the gap forces developers to interpret the designer’s goal on their own. That gives plenty of leeway for off-brand animations, links that go nowhere, and rounded corners that are a pixel or 50 off.
1. Designers that create ‘impossible’ designs
Anyone who has worked with CSS knows it can’t accomplish everything. Designers who are unfamiliar with CSS and want to push their creative bounds can easily build designs in Sketch or Photoshop that cannot be transported to the web (easily, or at all).
Bridging the design-development gap in this case implies ensuring that designers understand CSS capabilities well enough to avoid building impossible solutions.
2. Extensive documentation
Documentation is one of the most popular techniques used to bridge the design-development gap: redlines, spec docs, component diagrams, and so on. Whatever your team labels them, they are all documentation, and they all imply that a considerable amount of effort is spent on something that no end user would ever directly experience. Of course, that does not mean they lack values; most digital products may benefit from the design, language, and development documentation.
3. Extended feedback loops
Even if your designers construct with CSS in mind and provide extensive documentation, feedback is unavoidable. And it’s always useful. However, if the loops continue for too long, they can deplete resources and have a negative influence on staff morale.
Contrary feedback emerges from one cycle to the next, stakeholders muddy the waters with interpersonal arguments, and everyone loses sight of the overall strategy. Bridging the design-development gap in this case entails identifying strategies to eliminate superfluous feedback loops.
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