Introduction
As a front-end developer, you might have a lot of experience building websites. But that doesn't mean that you know everything there is to know about design. As with any other aspect of your job, preparation and planning are key to ensuring that your designs translate into reality without any unexpected snags along the way. In this article, we'll go over some simple tips for getting ready for a project with developers in mind—and ensure that all your hard work pays off when it comes time to ship your product!
Design is all about attention to detail.
Design is all about attention to detail. Design is how you make a product that's easy to use and understand, which means it must be intuitive, responsive and consistent.
The best designs get people excited about using them—and not just because they look great on the outside or have fancy features (although those things are nice). They also make sure that your product works as expected so users aren't wondering why something isn't working when they need it most
Give your developers the tools they need to build it right.
As a front-end developer, you have to be able to take your design components and build them out. You need to know what assets and specs you need for the project, as well as how it will be used in production.
To make sure that your developers have everything they need to do their job effectively, give them:
• The right assets (and versions). Designers often forget that front-end developers might not always work with the same tools or versions of software as they do themselves. Make sure that all versions of each asset are included in your repository so that there is no confusion when building things out later on down the line!
• A list of specs for each component so everyone knows exactly what needs doing before starting work on it!
High-fidelity prototypes go a long way.
The best way to get a designer-developer relationship off on the right foot is through high-fidelity prototypes. A prototype can be used for user testing, usability testing and even presentation design. It's important that you give your designers the tools they need so that they can build their own prototypes from scratch.
A high-fidelity prototype is essentially a mini site with wireframes and mockups that have been designed for usability purposes rather than aesthetics. They're easier for front end developers (and anyone else) who aren't familiar with how websites are built because they don't require any knowledge of HTML or CSS coding languages like you would need if working in Photoshop or Sketch+. High fidelity prototypes allow designers and developers alike unprecedented access into what will actually happen when designing an interface:
But low-fidelity mockups are just as important.
You can also use low-fidelity mockups to show the overall flow of your app. This is especially helpful when you need to explain how interactions work or what a particular page looks like, because it provides a visual representation of your design and content. Low-fidelity mockups are perfect for showing layout and content, which makes them an excellent starting point for front-end developers who want to understand how their work will look when it’s implemented into production code.
Use a mix of real and placeholder images and icons.
You’ll want to use a mix of real and placeholder images and icons in your design. There are two reasons for this:
• Real images are important, so you don’t want to cut corners by using placeholder ones.
• If you do use placeholder content, make sure it doesn't distract from the main message or confuse the user.
**Give your developer clean code or a pattern library to work with.
Give your developer clean code or a pattern library to work with. **
A front-end developer is an expert in CSS, but he or she may not be an expert in JavaScript and HTML. When you give them the tools they need to build it right, it will help them understand how things work together better than any other method of teaching you could do.
This will make sure your design is translated into reality without you having to hold anyone's hand through the process.
This will make sure your design is translated into reality without you having to hold anyone's hand through the process.
As a designer, you should provide developers with what they need to do their job. That means not holding their hand and doing their research for them!
Conclusion
You can’t just throw up a design and expect it to work. You need a process that lets you iterate and improve on your designs without the hassle of having to go back and forth between designers, developers, and stakeholders multiple times over the course of development.