Even though graphics designing and application development are completely different, but none of them are complete and useful without each other. Therefore, in a professional organization, a graphic designer and a developer have to work together to complete a project. If you are an aspiring graphic designer or a development, the natural question of how these two work together must come to your mind. The following article explains how in the professional world the actual projects go down.

Communication –

For the planning to be successful, there should be a good relationship between the graphic designer and the developer. There should not be any inferiority or superiority complex and they need to be very professional. All such complexes create a big communication gap. In fact, lack of communication and more of miscommunication can delay the project development and create a lot of confusion. The communication needs to be positive and each one of them should respect each other professionally. The relationship has to be healthy such that they can approach each other anytime to clarify any confusion.

Basic Knowledge –

A designer or a developer can never work together unless each one of them has some understanding about each other’s work. For example, a designer has to know the limitation of a programming language, what can be done with it, which ideas are feasible and likewise. Similarly, a developer must know about web user experience, visual design principles and likewise. This will help each other to give feasible suggestions to implement rather than making wishful suggestions. An understanding of each other’s work will enhance the respect as they will understand that the other person’s work is equally difficult as his.

Planning –

The first step of collaborative work is proper planning. Therefore, the developer and the designer have to sit down together, understand the problem in front of them, analysis and dissect into modules before doing a complete planning of how to go about. An effective planning before starting to work on the project together is necessary. This will save a lot of time in fewer contradictions as they are already sorted out. All they have to do is do their parts as per the plan to get the job done.

Wireframing –

The main collaboration between a graphic designer and a developer is due to wireframing. In relatively small firms, a designer and a developer sit together and make the wireframes for each page or screen of any application they are working on. A wireframe is done by taking the knowledge of designing and development. There would be a lot of exchange of ideas and thoughts about what should be done, what can be done, and what needs to be done. This stage is more dedicated to the designer. However, the developer should know what is happening and why it is happening in the wireframes so that he can develop accordingly. If there is any need, he can pass suggestion and intervene to make things simpler in the wireframe.

But a developer will need a designer in the developmental phase to ensure that the wireframes are intact during and after the development. A designer also becomes the immediate tester of the modules developed as per the plan. Therefore, the entire cycle of designer, developer, and tester gets complete. In fact, a developer will need a designer to make modifications when something unexpected comes up.

Mindset –

It is important for both the persons to have a mindset for constant modifications and learning the way the other person works. It is the duty of both the persons to include each other in everything and ask for feedback and suggestion. Even if it is very insignificant and something the other person has less knowledge about, both the persons must be willing to involve one another’s work and progress hand in hand. In fact, the planning needs to be done till the end so that the collaboration lasts without fading away as both will follow the plan and stick to it.

For better teamwork, the design needs to explain the design theory to the developer in layman’s term. He should also optimize the design for the easy development rather than complicating it and making it hard for the developer. No job must be left undone on one’s part. For a developer, he needs to learn the basics and make himself available for queries and clarifications. He should also involve the designer in the entire process of the project development to make it better and for future projects as well.

These days, the designer or the developer may not spend too much time face to face as they are multiple collaboration and teamwork based tools available that are used in the professional companies. Tools like Google Drawings, Trello, Cage App, ConceptBoard, Slack and likewise are how a graphic design and a developer work together.

Kitty Gupta
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