How can you prevent conflicts between User Experience Design (UED) professionals and developers?

1 Understand each other's roles and responsibilities

One of the main sources of conflict between UED and development is the lack of clarity and alignment on what each team does and why. UED professionals are responsible for researching, designing, and testing user interfaces, interactions, and flows, while developers are responsible for coding, testing, and deploying the functionality and performance of the product. Both teams have different skills, tools, and methods, but they share a common goal: to create a high-quality product that solves user problems and satisfies business objectives. Therefore, it is important to understand each other's roles and responsibilities, and respect their expertise and contributions.

2 Communicate early and often

Another key factor to prevent conflicts between UED and development is to communicate early and often throughout the project lifecycle. Communication can help to establish a shared vision, define the scope and requirements, clarify the assumptions and expectations, resolve the issues and feedback, and celebrate the achievements and learnings. Communication can take various forms, such as meetings, emails, chats, documents, prototypes, and demos, but they should always be clear, concise, and consistent. Moreover, communication should be based on empathy, honesty, and openness, and avoid blaming, criticizing, or dismissing each other's opinions or work.

3 Collaborate and co-create

A third tip to prevent conflicts between UED and development is to collaborate and co-create as much as possible. Collaboration and co-creation can help to leverage the strengths and insights of both teams, and generate more innovative and feasible solutions. Collaboration and co-creation can involve activities such as brainstorming, sketching, wireframing, prototyping, testing, and iterating, where both teams can share their ideas, feedback, and suggestions, and build on each other's work. Furthermore, collaboration and co-creation can foster a sense of ownership, trust, and mutual support among both teams, and enhance their motivation and satisfaction.

5 Establish common standards and tools

A fifth tip to prevent conflicts between UED and development is to establish common standards and tools that can streamline the workflow and communication of both teams. Common standards and tools can include guidelines, frameworks, libraries, templates, patterns, components, and platforms that can define the design and development specifications, conventions, and best practices. These standards and tools can help to ensure the consistency and compatibility of the design and development outputs, and reduce the errors and rework. Moreover, these standards and tools can simplify the handoff and integration of both teams, and save time and resources.

6 Learn and grow together

A sixth and final tip to prevent conflicts between UED and development is to learn and grow together as professionals and as a team. Learning and growing together can involve activities such as training, mentoring, coaching, shadowing, reviewing, and reflecting, where both teams can exchange their knowledge, skills, and experiences, and learn from each other's successes and failures. These activities can help to improve the competence and confidence of both teams, and foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Furthermore, these activities can strengthen the relationship and rapport of both teams, and create a positive and constructive atmosphere.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?