Why you should have a front-end designer on your team
Some weeks ago, the entire world of Twitter erupted on the subject of the all too often pointed jabs between designers and Front-end developers on the Web. This online spatter, jokes or not, is a gross reflection of what happens in the software development workspace therefore, these jabs create friction with real consequences.
A good example is an incident during the Q & A section at the Concatenate Conference 2019 held in Nigeria where Prosper Otemuyiwa, the co-founder of the developer community Forloop Africa, reportedly asked the question: “As developers, how do we deal with over-ambitious designers?” This sure led to accusations and counter-accusations among developers.
What exactly is the cause of this fracas?
Due to the emergence of sophisticated UI trends in recent times, the execution of designs can be an uphill task due to major constraints such as time, on the part of management, and inadequate technical know-how on the part of the developer.
Developers get frustrated when designers design things that are “impossible”. Many times I have heard Developers cussing the Designers for their “Magazine-like” design for UI of a Web page. Designers, on the other hand, fume at seeing that their guidance is ignored and their designs implemented differently from how they were originally laid out.
All this will be greatly minimized if not completely eradicated if there is someone on the team who can merge both ends of the divide. This means that the designer is not only the master of personas, color, and shapes but is also able to conveniently bring that beauty to life on the web environment. Like a friend once said, having the mind of a Physicist and the hands of an engineer.
Front-End Design
Front-End Design is an emerging term for the coalescence between the ever-glamorous world of design and the logic-based world of Front-end development. In simpler terms, it’s the actual implementation of designs made i.e, treating frontend development as a core part of the design process.
Brad Frost defines it as:
Somewhere between design — a world of personas, pixels, and polish — and engineering — a world of logic, loops, and linux — lies frontend design. Frontend design involves creating the HTML, CSS, and presentational JavaScript code that makes up a user interface.
Therefore, a front-end designer not only creates the aesthetics and wireframes for the product but also turns them into reality via code.
This is not to say that the designer solely shoulders the responsibility of designing and implementing. Of course, we still need both unique specialties and skillsets. But, gradually the lines are blurring.
Why have a Front-end designer?
In a fast-moving software development atmosphere, with tight schedules, frowning project managers, and demanding clients, having the front-end designer who made the designs come in after a developer’s first pass to fine-tune or make “tweaks” in the code, will save everyone lots of stress and undoubtedly improve project efficiency as well as the outcome.
The front-end designer thinks in user experience as well as the visual presentation, but with the end goal (the implementation of the code itself) in mind which can be likened to thinking with two minds. This gives the designer a sense of what is possible or not, and helps him/her empathize while designing. This attribute makes all the difference.
In my three months of being a Front-end design Intern, I have worked on projects where I come up with the prototype and screens while also delving in every now and then to tweak the CSS to mirror my designs. This experience albeit, tedious, has been more fun than either of two works done separately.
Okay, I admit that the Javascript part makes me a little nervous. I know just enough to be dangerous. I really don’t think that’s unusual among front-end designers who have come from a design as I have but as they say, it can only get better.
