Recently I attended a workshop run by the people behind Microsoft Expression - a suite of tools for web designers. A big selling point of their offering is that it enables designers and developers to work together better.
Arturo Toledo, the Product Manager for Microsoft Expression and Silverlight, described how Expression makes team collaboration easier through a unified approach to design and development and a shared bunch of files.
Historically, when building an application or website, the majority of teams did not include a designer. With little or no design process the end result was usually ugly and/or unusable.
Most developers focussed on engineering problems, whereas the designers focus was more on the aesthetics and user requirements. But this introduced a number of problems.
The tools used by designers were not compatible with the tools the developers were using - the developers simply could not open the design images in the tools they used.
As a consequence the project files could not easily be exchanged. The exchange usually resulted in the developer having to pull apart or even reconstruct the design in their own tools, and to the horror of the designer, altering the design along the way.
By this stage the designer felt out of control and could be often found seething in the corner or crying into their coffee. Salty coffee is bad for business.
Ladder Method: Broken?
In the late 90s many web agencies hit on a solution - 'The Integrator'.
This person usually has a design bent and also understands software engineering problems. They can translate creative designs to work in harmony with code.
Parallel Method: Common Today
In smaller web-shops most designers have extended their technical skills so they can act as both designer and integrator on projects. But this process is still problematic in that files are still not seamless between designer software and developer software.
Microsoft Expression fixes this issue by allowing the designer and developer to work on the same file, but within software tailored to their needs. Designers use Expression Studio and developers keep using Visual Studio.
Teams can keep using their traditional collaboration methods but Expression also opens the door to a new way of working - the "Piggyback method".
Piggyback Method: Designer Lead
This method works on the concept that either the designer or developer can kick-start the creation of the project, but that one of the roles must lead the charge. The other piggybacks as needed.
Piggyback Method: Developer Lead
In all, it's a positive step that Microsoft are taking in creating tools to encourage a more unified design and development approach. Here's what they did last month at a workshop for some of New Zealand's leading web and interactive agencies.
I recommend that designers, integrators and developers take note and think how they can work different - reflect on your current team collaboration methods (or lack of it), look at alternative models and don't be afraid to learn new tools...
Salty Coffee Image: Nuh Sarche
