talk notes

design with engineers

- basic, no research
- scrappy, no cohesive vision
- meek, little confidence

+ actual designer

introducing a proper design practice into acompany full of engineers

context together
----

early stages of a project, hard to get shared context, but worth it, required for any decent decision making

get shared context, get confidence making decisions

everyone attends context gathering meetings regardless of role

engineers become more aware of user needs

can spot technical issues much sooner in design process

engineers need to attend user testing/research

engineers need to educate designers on hard technical problems (eg timezones)



create a dictionary
-----

naming is hard, but take time to get designers and engineers using the same language.

create shared document that everyone (engineers/designers) can both use

define project specific terms, data structures,

define your freaking acronyms (REST)

engineers note reserved words (programming lang etc)

designers note reserved words ("observation")

accessibility is a big one that can lose meaning across eng/designer border


teach as you work
------

cant become experts of each others domain, but can still learn from each other

inject short lessons into day to day work (30 mins) whenever needed, these arent a distraction, 
but a key part of the working day


test and retest assumptions
-----

avoid expensive mistakes

eg. designer designs UX workflow, must be tested against data model, so play through the UX interaction with
engineer, so can be sure data model supports that workflow, then either decide whether data model changes, or
interaction should change


break down language barriers
----------------

people arent dumb, just havent explained well enough yet

engineers need to be skilled at explaining to get designers to understand technical problems

dont be afraid to draw things to explain technical problems!



why bother?
--------

designs more aligned with engineering thinking

easier to negotiate constraints

faster and better decisions

everyone has a better time!


design can thrive in an engineering-led environment

but engineers need to help