Website developer collaboration

Design Action Collective 11 years old, started with print, now web want to tell our movement's stories

Case Studies

south asian film festival

iterative process

 user needs
 wireframes
 design
   maintain familiar elements
   color scheme
 changing requirements
   iterated on wireframes & designs

electric embers

potential tension btw designer / developer

 after coded up, designer says "search bar is weird, font are wrong"
 clarifying designer intent, tweaking details that make a difference

texas organizing project

responsive design

 adapts to different screen sizes
 for mobile devices, reduce image size & bandwidth
 different content for smaller screens
   focal point for photographs / imagery

first place for youth

rebranding

 wanted to improve donation flow
 integrate with external processor

group questions

how do you build in a discovery process?

 depth depends on client budget, timeline
 small as an initial conversation
 big as a competitive audit

when org hasn't done communications strategy before?

 designer may need to clarify mission, strategy
 connect organizational goals to website needs
 be clear about identifying audience
 similiar challenges in logo design
   know when to push back, recommend an alternate course
   "you don't need a logo, you need a retreat"

for developers, how engaged are you in content updates?

 depends on CMS, site design
 format sometimes doesn't match design comps
 clients can need longer term assistance, training
   initial training, needed a followup
   staff changes
 how to document?
   long PDF
   recorded video
 user testing the admin
   not just responding to issues
   ensure client has opportunity to see admin interface early in the process
 include counter-examples, or what not to do
   copy and pasting from MS Office into WSYWIG

what tools do people use?

   CMS systems: wordpress, drupal
   database abstraction layers: django, joomla
   static sites w/o a CMS: jekyll, straight HTML

how to integrate designer w/ development process

 which parts are really critical?
 need a tight feedback loop
   pair program w/ designer
 notice spacing issues once you have real content

how to deal with scope creep?

 client education (what kind of feedback when in the process)
 mood boards
 interactive wireframes, before you build out the site
   invision, balsamiq, apptopia, omnigraffle
 multiple designs based on signed-off wireframes

how do you know when to pick up a new tool

 "I just threw away my perl"
 so much tech turnover, new tools all the time
 paper prototyping, hand drawn mockups
   can even be interactive (pop app?)

jekyll site demo

 really good for static content, flat templates
 removes database layer, levels of content abstraction
 harder for people to edit (but prose.io can help)
 git backed, clear revision history, site forks & pull requests
 free hosting on github-pages, or really cheap on s3
 harder to do simple cms functionality (search, dynamic content)