On symbiotic relationship between designers and

developers

Adit Gupta
 Adit Product
Gupta Designer
@aditgupt 200 Freelancer, Author on Smashing Magazine
a 9
https:// 2010- Technology Evangelist
aditgupta.design 2018 Python Lead
Designer - Furlenco, PayPal
Founder - Function Space

201 ServiceNow
9- Google Developer Expert - Design
Design Mentor - Google Launchpad
Philosopher-in-training

DevFest Bangalore
2019
DevFest Bangalore
2019
DevFest Bangalore
2019
DevFest Bangalore
2019
DevFest Bangalore
2019
 Stories
Inspired by true
events

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2019
 #1
A new designer in the
town

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2019
 All hail
skeuomorphism!

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2019
 A Nightmare!

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2019
 All that was wrong :(

0 No collaboration 0 My way or the highway

1 2
I was trying too hard to Thr highway to hell
prove myself as a “good”
designer

0 Review meetings from hell

3
Playing the blame game

DevFest Bangalore
2019
DevFest Bangalore
2019
 The solution was…
easy!

Work
together!
"Alone we can do so little; together we
can do so much." – Helen Keller

DevFest Bangalore
2019
 Learnings

0 No silos! 0 Empathy begins at

1 2
We can’t make products
working in our own worlds
home
Consider your managers and
development team

0 Stop blaming 0 It’s all about our users

3 4
Understand. Respond, don’t react. It’s not about designers or developers. We
have to work together.

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2019
 #2
Startup days

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2019
DevFest Bangalore
2019
 How we collaborated
at Function Space

0 Guiding principles for the 0 Understand user intent

1 2
Analytics, task analysis and surveys.
feature/product Engineers were always involved in
You need tech and design to follow them
read-outs.
properly

0 Together from start 0 Well-defined deliverables

3 4
Not just words but actions

DevFest Bangalore
2019
DevFest Bangalore
2019
 Visual Equation Editor Recommendation engines

Vector
Quarter Topics
DiscussionsEquation Caller
Scientific Notebook

DevFest Bangalore
2019
 Visual Equation Editor Recommendation engines

Vector
Quarter Topics
DiscussionsEquation Caller
Scientific Notebook

DevFest Bangalore
2019
 Learnings

0 No silos! 0 Empathy begins at

1 2
We can’t make products
working in our own worlds
home
Consider your managers and
development team

0 Stop blaming 0 It’s all about our users

3 4
Understand. Respond, don’t react. It’s not about designers or developers. We
have to work together.

0 Share ideas 0 Pairing

5 6
That’s the key to innovation For mutual benefit!

0 Define deliverables

7
The team should have a clear
understanding of the deliverables

DevFest Bangalore
2019
 #3
The big machine

DevFest Bangalore
2019
 Design and
Managers engineering orgs

KPIs, targets
Design system

Program
managers/Sprint
Masters

Q1, Q2…deadlines, Meetings! And more

ramps, launches, GA meetings.

DevFest Bangalore
2019
We still have The boon and bane of design systems
some issues.. Brings consistency and standards, but governance is an issue.

The “Scrum” constraints

Design is still a sort of misfit in the entire agile scrum process

Feasibility, Scalability, and Modularity

You always have to consider the trio!

DevFest Bangalore
2019
 Effective Collaboration

DevFest Bangalore
2019
A structured
approach for
collaboration Align Sync-ups

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2019
 Align Sync-ups

1-3-30 What? Resolve Docum

Why? ent
- Once per week - What are we doing? Understand the blockers, - Action items
- Designer+Content,
When?
- Why? dependencies. - Follow up items
engineer, and manager - When?
- 30 minutes

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2019
A structured
approach for
communication Align Sync-ups WaH sessions

DevFest Bangalore
2019
 Why and How session
- Prerequisites

Ideation Mid to high-fidelity

phase designs
- All grooming and A prototype would be
research is done even better!
- Team had a few align
sessions

DevFest Bangalore
2019
 Design - Explaining Why

Sidebar navigation is perceived as

easy to use - Concept testing results
(95%)

Overview of primary numbers based

on survey

Line graph and pie charts are easiest

to comprehend - concept testing and
secondary research

A dedicated section for quickly

creating new drafts - Competitor
analysis.

Latest comments - Standard feature

for CMS

Top referrals - Survey, Feature

requests

DevFest Bangalore Template - https://designrevision.com/demo/shards-dashboard-lite-react/blog-overview

2019
 Development - Explaining How

Sidebar navigation is perceived as Can be developed from

easy to use - Concept testing results existing component NO
W
(95%)

Overview of primary numbers based Numbers possible. NO

on survey Can’t show trends in W

this version. NEX

T

Line graph and pie charts are easiest Possible from Chart JS
NO
to comprehend - concept testing and library W

secondary research

A dedicated section for quickly No component NO

creating new drafts - Competitor available. Also, can we T

analysis. add it to new post?

Latest comments - Standard feature Comments can be

NO
for CMS shown. Quick actions W

will take time. NEX

T

Top referrals - Survey, Feature Can be done from NO

requests existing component W

DevFest Bangalore Template - https://designrevision.com/demo/shards-dashboard-lite-react/blog-overview

2019
A structured
approach for
communication Align Sync-ups WaH sessions

Retrospectiv
e

DevFest Bangalore
2019
 Retrospective

What went What can be improved? What are the next steps?
well?
Use green post-it notes to Use red for pink post-it notes Use blue or yellow post-it
write down all the went well to write down that needs notes to write down any next
improvement steps

DevFest Bangalore
2019
 Learnings and
Methods

0 No silos! 0 Empathy begins at

1 2
We can’t make products
working in our own worlds
home
Consider your managers and
development team

0 Stop blaming 0 It’s all about our users

3 4
Understand. Respond, don’t react. It’s not about designers or developers. We
have to work together.

0 Share ideas 0 Pairing

5 6
That’s the key to innovation For mutual benefit!

0 Define deliverables M Align Why and

7 How
The team should have a clear
understanding of the deliverables

Retrospectiv
e

DevFest Bangalore
2019
 I
W
DevFest Bangalore
2019
e
 Than
k
@aditgupta

you!
DevFest Bangalore
2019
On symbiotic relationship between designers
and developers

Adit Gupta

GDG Bangalore DevFest 2019