index.md (4053B)
1 --- 2 title: "Stop Pissing Off Your Designers" 3 date: 2009-04-01T00:00:00+00:00 4 draft: false 5 canonical_url: https://www.viget.com/articles/stop-pissing-off-your-designers/ 6 --- 7 8 A few weeks ago, our local [Refresh](http://refreshthetriangle.org) 9 group pitted me (representing web developers) against Viget designer 10 [Mindy](https://www.viget.com/about/team/mwagner) in a battle for the 11 ages. Our talk, "Ten Things Designers Do That Piss Developers Off (and 12 Vice Versa)," offered a back-and-forth look at some of the issues that 13 crop up between web professionals. Despite the overwhelming strength of 14 my arguments, I won't deny that she got some good shots in. Here are 15 some of the key lessons I took away. 16 17 ### Stay off the bandwagon 18 19 One of Mindy's best points was the tendency of developers, when 20 selecting technologies to use on a project, to go with what's new and 21 hip rather than what's the best fit or what will yield the best final 22 result. I think we can all relate to learning a new technology or 23 technique and then wanting to immediately apply it to whatever we're 24 working on. 25 26 Technology bandwagon-jumping goes hand-in-hand with another common 27 problem: over-engineering. In my experience, when a chosen technology is 28 a bad fit for a project, it's typically because it's too powerful. An 29 over-engineered solution is a nightmare for the next developer --- in a 30 past life, I maintained a Spring-powered, Lucene-searchable monstrosity 31 running on dedicated hardware that would have been better served with a 32 WordPress install on Dreamhost. 33 34 When selecting technologies, stick with the best fit, whether that's 35 what you know best or what will lead to the best final product. If 36 you're just dying to try out some new technology, do what I do: redo 37 your personal site (in lieu of actually posting any new content to it). 38 39 ### Avoid the knee-jerk "No" 40 41 Picture this: you're sitting at your desk one morning, happily reading 42 Hacker News, when an IM window pops up on your screen. It's your PM, and 43 she's got a new feature request from the client. It's not a major 44 change, but it will involve a substantial overhaul of the messaging 45 system you built. What's your response? Be honest --- you give her 46 seventeen reasons why the requested change is a bad idea. 47 48 When discussing feature requests, keep in mind that the ultimate goal is 49 to create the best product possible. Requirements change, and though it 50 sucks to complicate elegant solutions, sometimes change is necessary. As 51 an added benefit, if you avoid staying "no" instinctively, when a 52 *truly* bad idea lands on your plate, your objections will carry a lot 53 more weight. 54 55 ### Remember: you are not the user 56 57 Mindy noted a trait common to many developers: a lack of empathy for the 58 user, or rather, the mistaken idea that we ourselves are the typical 59 user. In other words, developers are prone to creating features that 60 they would want to use, regardless of how well they might serve the 61 actual audience of the site. 62 63 When deciding on geeky features, it's important to keep your audience in 64 mind. If you're designing a site about web productivity, by all means, 65 go nuts --- bookmarklets, keyboard shortcuts, customizable RSS feeds, 66 the whole nine yards. But if your site's intended audience is, say, 67 gardening enthusiasts, your time would probably be better spent 68 elsewhere. 69 70 ### But in the end 71 72 We all want to create the best web sites possible. Disagreements arise 73 about definitions of "best"; while a designer wants a site that's 74 attractive and intuitive, the developer wants one that is stable and 75 maintainable. In the end, these qualities aren't mutually exclusive --- 76 the highest-quality websites have them all. 77 78 Mindy has posted [her 79 thoughts](https://www.viget.com/inspire/stop-driving-your-developers-crazy) 80 on the talk, and our slides are available on 81 [SlideShare](http://www.slideshare.net/mindywagner/10-things-designers-do-that-piss-developers-off-and-vice-versa). 82 And if you're in Durham (or lesser nearby cities), come on out to the 83 next [Refresh](http://refreshthetriangle.org) meeting. 84