Effective and attractive web design is a collaboration of multiple specialists working on the same project. It requires the training and expertise of both web designers and web developers, each of whom have different essential jobs that must come together for a successful end result.
Yet sometimes these two experts can end up at odds, especially when web designers find all their hard work has been changed by developers. To avoid these issues and ensure the final product reflects design as well as developmental requirements, web design services must encourage greater communication and education among all those working on the same projects.
Two Pieces of the Same Puzzle
Web designers are responsible for taking a client’s vision as well as their visual image of a design project and turning it into reality. This relates to much more than simply color palettes and typefaces; it also refers to user interfaces, user-friendly function, and the overall impression the entire website creates. Effective web design must consider the target audience and how the site can best serve the user, as well as how it will achieve the client’s website goals.
On the other hand, web developers take the designs and then code them to actually work. Many times, the web designer’s decisions are altered in order to provide the required function, improve ideas that may not seem functionally efficient, or just to make the code work.
The end result can sometimes be a website that functions in a certain way but lacks the special features intended by the designer simply because developers either cannot incorporate them or do not understand what elements are important and should not be changed. Naturally, this creates a problem. Websites look differently than web designers planned and even discussed with clients.
A Meeting of The Minds
This problem of web designers versus web developers is a common one seen by many web design services and often result from lack of communication and education in some instances. Each expert knows their specialty but may not know about the other specialty. This creates situations where web designers who do not understand if their requests can actually be implemented by developers require things that cannot be done without affecting the design. Similarly, web developers may add code to achieve specific function, without understanding how their choices will affect the idea the web designer was trying to achieve.
In a perfect world, the answer would be for all employees of web design services to know everything about all aspects of the design project. Since this is not practical as each specialist knows their field best, the answer must come from improved communication and even some co-education where possible. As with all other aspects of a web design project, there needs to be open communication for collaboration to work. Therefore, designers must articulate their ideas and plans to developers throughout the design process. In turn, developers must guide designers to help them come up with the best way to achieve their vision and that of the client.
To avoid this problem and any potential problems it can create for web design services, good communication and guidance between web designers and web developers is essential. Even though the developer is responsible for the code and bringing the whole idea to life, it is the designer who creates the vision to the client's satisfaction. Web designers and developers will have fewer headaches by working more closely to produce an effective and attractive web design!