Being part of a busy full-service agency, websites take up a massive part of my working day. They are a vital weapon in any brand's marketing arsenal and form one of the most important marketing tools for any client... and they definitely aren't made overnight. 

Anyone who has been involved in the development of a website, be it agency side or client side, knows the sheer number of steps involved in successfully building a website, and the number of different team members and skill sets required to develop these essential marketing tools.

With that in mind, let’s look at an approach that’s much too familiar in many agencies…

All necessary discussions happen between client and agency team – specs, requirements and ambitions are agreed. Brand values are established and target personas identified.

This information all makes its way over to the design team. After a lot of research, drafts and caffeine, the client signs off a shiny working prototype of their eagerly anticipated new website. The designer says “My work is done here, thank you very much – onto the next project!” 

So, over to the web dev guys. Designs get reviewed, code bases get considered, questions are raised about how things will work on different devices and lots of theoretical beard-stroking happens… and admittedly some rather technical coding wizardry in between. 

A ream of entirely justifiable questions make their way back to the design team (who are now knee-deep in the next project) and answers are given, often on the fly and not quite as thought out or considered as everyone would like. 

This lack of collaboration inevitably leads to a lot of compromises and frustrations, meaning the project and site build doesn’t wrap up with the level of polish it deserves or that the client was hoping for. Everyone is left just a little underwhelmed, and the critical SEO work is plugged in as an afterthought.

That’s why I don’t see website design as an assembly line.

At my agency, we champion collaboration of design, development, strategy, content and SEO teams. By getting designers, developers and all other parties working together and engaged from the early stages of discovery and strategy sessions, any and all questions get answered before wireframes are drawn up or pen has been put to paper.

Technical considerations are mulled over and solutions found. Expectation documents and functionality specs are accurate and achievable. UX and SEO implications are considered at every stage. Everyone is quickly able to see that the site will work, not just aesthetically, but also in code (and within budget!).

What benefits have we seen from this approach?

• A more streamlined process with less friction
• Design and finished product are a better reflection of one another
• Smoother, more informed UX and UI
• A more robust codebase with less messy ad-hoc changes applied
• Delivery on-budget and on-time

Benefiting from each others’ skillsets

In my opinion, when embarking on a new website project, design should be guided by the best practice, code capabilities and UX knowledge of the dev team. Likewise dev should be guided by the aesthetics and rationale of the design team, reflecting their understanding of how the website should look and work – keeping on-brand and on-track. 

The two go hand in hand. It’s a collaboration we’ve embraced that’s made me a stronger, more informed designer, and I'd hope our Dev team would agree that the changes we've implemented have helped them consider things in a different light.

The amount of misunderstandings about how components were designed to look and function is reduced, tensions are lessened and teams come together to share, improve and develop. In my opinion, as an industry we need to keep questioning, keep innovating and keep moving forwards in the ways we work together…