From http://blog.123ship.it : Do you remember the time when you built your first apps? You were probably the one-man-army, responsible for the whole idea, development, design and copywriting. Stumbling the web to find best templates or designs to reuse, learning basics of UX and photoshop - just like an adventure. Those were the days.

1. Developers, learn to design!
środa, 6 marca 13

2. Do you remember building your
first app?
• You as a one-man-army, responsible for the whole
idea, development, design and copywriting
• Stumbling the web to find best templates or designs
to reuse
• Learning basics of UX and photoshop
• An adventure!
środa, 6 marca 13

3. How does it look like in “grown-ups”
world:
• It's designers job to provide you designs
• Everyone in the team has his own role in projects,
different competences
• We all stick to these narrow fields and learn to
become experts in them
• Team contains developers, designers, project
managers, product managers and so on
środa, 6 marca 13

4. How keeping the competences
narrow affects project flow:
• Communication ladder: product owner -> project
manager -> graphic designer -> developer
• It takes time to implement every little change or
feature
• Process helps you avoid mistakes but slows you
down
• Communication issues: designers don’t understand
developers and the other way
środa, 6 marca 13

5. Now imagine that you have
competences to work on some small
graphic changes and show right away
how does it look like in live app.
Two minutes instead of two weeks.
środa, 6 marca 13

6. "But I don't have talent", you
say.
You don't have to be a freaking
Picasso to suggest color change!
środa, 6 marca 13

7. • Design is not a rocket science. It's set of rules, just
like programming
• There are few principles that every team member
should know about design
• Design does not have to be perfect, good enough is
OK
• In order to make software development process
more efficient we should all share some
competences and the design is one of the most
important.
środa, 6 marca 13

8. Why to learn?
• Do more on your own: Sometimes it's easier to
make some changes by yourself than delegate it.
• Sharing competences make team feels
responsibility for the whole project, not only its small
part. You'll be surprised how this affects productivity.
• Communication: imagine how easier would it be to
work with designer that knows basics of code? It
works in both directions.
środa, 6 marca 13

9. Stop whining, start learning!
środa, 6 marca 13

10. Where to begin?
• Take a look at twitter bootstrap. It's propably the best
framework to make good-looking front-end fast
• Buy "Don't make me think" - it's one of the best books
about UX. After you read it, you will know enough to
decide what element should be where and why in the
app.
• Improve your aesthetic eye by stumbling well-
designed apps. Just visit sites like Best Web
Gallery and Screenalicious
• Don't invent anything, just copy. Designs don't differ
too drastically from accepted aesthetics
środa, 6 marca 13

11. Thanks!
Visit us at blog.123ship.it
środa, 6 marca 13