When working within a team it is extremely important to have constant communication and interaction with each other. Without it, projects tend to stray from the intended direction and ultimately confusion ensues — I find this to be especially true when it comes to design and development. During the lifespan of a project, designers and developers should always be checking in with each other to verify that everything is on track. Let’s begin with the design phase:

In a typical process, the design is developed first and then passed to the programming team for the addition of functionality. During the design phase, certain ideas and concepts can arise that may not be part of the initial contract and may also be well out of scope in terms of programming. The best practice here would be to discuss these ideas with the project’s lead programmer before you start to implement them into the design. If no communication occurs here, and the design is sent to the client, they might end up having higher expectations than originally thought. In a more specific example, the designer may place a newsletter signup box in the design when it isn’t part of the original contract. The client will see this and think they will have a newsletter once the site is launched, and the programming team has no choice but to implement it for them. This can cause several issues during the life of a project such as budget overages, miscommunication, and the chance that the client will end up paying more than what they initially anticipated.

There are many ways that this can be avoided, and it all revolves around constant communication. When a designer has an idea, it should immediately be brought up to the lead programmer and a discussion around budget, feasibility, and requirements should take place. It might also be a good idea to set up weekly meetings with both teams in order to be in a parallel mindset — this is especially helpful in large scale projects.