

Ask HN: UX/Design in agile teams? - adrianhoward

One thing I've noticed in the last few years is a different pattern in the way that designers approach development (and vice versa) on agile teams.<p>More and more these days I'm seeing developers who are keen to understand more about design/UX. They're poking away an bits of interaction design. You'll often see a few design books on the techie bookshelf (Rosenfeld Media books seem to be especially popular). They'll be trying stuff like usability testing. I could go on.<p>This isn't true of everybody, or even a majority, and it certainly doesn't suddenly turn developers into skilled designers. However I am encountering more developers who have a broader understanding of the breadth of design/UX - and that's it not just about "making things pretty".<p>The reverse doesn't seem to be as true. There are certainly designers pick up some front-end skills and are happy spending some time in HTML/CSS/JavaScript land. But I don't encounter very many who are interested, or have any appreciation, of the breadth of skills involved on the development side. Even when their design/UX skills would be stupidly useful.<p>Has anybody else noticed this?<p>Is this selection bias on my part? (I spend a bunch of my time trying to encourage agile folk and UX folk to play nice together - so the companies I tend to see have often already figured out that design is important - so it's already going to be valued).<p>[Disclaimer: I might want to steal (with permission) some of the comments for a talk I'm giving on the "UI in an Agile Process" track at GOTO Copenhagen next month - rambling on about integrating design work throughout development (drop me an e-mail if you want a registration discount :-)]
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studiofellow
I'm not convinced it's selection bias, but just that there is a huge range in
skillsets now. In my personal network, I'd estimate that more than 50% of the
designers I know are competent front end coders. (I've worked at a couple of
large agencies, so I know quite a few designers.) It's very rare that meet a
designer who doesn't know any code or who isn't at least trying to learn. Most
job posts for designers that I see expect knowledge of HTML/CSS as a minimum,
but often also Javascript & frameworks, or even Rails.

I don't really know of many programmers who have even a basic understanding of
design. Sometimes, they even lack appreciation for design. Maybe that's
selection bias too. Just speaking of my personal experience here.

Maybe we're all just pointing fingers at each other. It's obviously productive
for everyone to gain basic competency in the opposite discipline.

