Dear Designer,
Sit down now, and sip a latte.
How are you there? I am writing this to define how I deeply like to catch a coffee with you, in the midst of our separate desk in the office. While I am here with tons of bugs to be done, problems to be solved, things to go on stackoverflow, line of codes more.
We’re also just human, like you.
We naturally are made to talk, to connect and to share. When you talk those sparkling ideas, what my brain really works is thinking how to make it real. When you are passionate to tell your theory, I am trying to visualize the codes to build the architecture.
The cases are ours. But we often have our sick while implementing your beautifully graduated drop shadow. We have to tell each other but things betray us in the middle of the state works. You do the marvelous design, but the demon comes toward us and I do not even understand how to implement the flaw of interaction behavior you have made.
One day I find the moment when I receive the enchanted design of yours, I couldn’t refuse that is the design of every people want.
Photo by Ilya Pavlov on Unsplash
But thing missed, the essential guide to go doesn’t exist within. The specs of margin/padding is dismissed somewhere, the uncertain size of fonts is gone another way, or clueless in sizing the state of icon.
Dear Designer, I need us to understand each other. I tried to learn design to understand your work, and I hope you learn basic code/programming. We gotta work for masterpiece together. We gotta hold our hands up in the making of brilliant. Kill the alter ego of yours, and I will kill mine.
You need to know the state of making mobile apps is different with the book cover or poster you used to make back in college. You often create amazing design, but I get clueless to make it happen in the mobile. It ain’t that same, baby.
Dear designer, I love your design. But I more than love to know if your design is do-able to be implemented.
The challenge in coding the Monalisa of Da Vinci would make my neuron dances more, but hey, I am trying to compromise. The complex design with the low of business value doesn’t need to be developed, Honey. At least till the right time.
The simple is the hotter. I love to know if you convince the simple but not-so-flat design, as simple as I love to write this letter to you. The design that is ease every developer, and loved by the peoples. The usable, feasible and navigable one. The design that is appropriate to the platform, and of course that is handy for my Grandma and Grandpa.
It isn’t about the difficult code, but it is design that fix by need or not. I’ll try my best to make it true if the design is really needed by the user.
Dear designer, let me recall our best collaboration moment. I am passionate to work hand-in-hand and shake a brain with you, when the case is coming and we are hugely spirited to fix it together. We conduct the work plan, the design, the detail, and the product value together. Together.
You are the one who bridge the requirement and technical feasibility. I do salute with you. I hope the Android design isn’t always reused from the iOS.
Dear the artist of the kingdom, you are strong. High capable of your courage. Thing you should remain are stay learning, because the growing of design state is rapidly change.
Stay communicating, because the coffee-talk you’d spend with me is possibly the most quality time for us to create the amazing creature.
We are human. We need to care, love and hug each other for the sake of social need. We are born to collaborate, to maximize the left and right brain of ours. Dear us, keep up the good work.
Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash
This narration were written based on our conversation with fellow software engineers back in 2017–2018. (some of the things may already changed as the years goes by, and the collaboration between designer and engineer are greatly improved with dossier of tools and plugins out there)
As we involve in digital design industry, we tried to conduct interview sessions with several amazing software developers. They come from various tech start-ups. The curiosity to detect the love and hate relationship between developer and designer couldn’t afford to be dismissed, and here they are:
1. Would you please to tell us how do you collaborate with designer?
2. When designer creates an un-do-able design, how would you respond to it?
3. Have you ever experienced a depressed missing communication with designer?
4. What’s the most memorable collaboration experience that you have with designer?
