5 reasons why your «developer design sucks» – and how to improve it

Far too often I hear the phrase «my developer design sucks», usually followed by «we could really use a designer on our project».

Unfortunately, the simple truth is that most of these projects do need a designer. There are design decisions to be made even if there are no available designers to make them. This is usually where unfortunate developers experience friction.

Over the years I have been approached by many developers asking for pointers on how to improve their UIs and make them more user-friendly. As a designer, I can understand the frustration of having to make decisions that might not be yours to make. Luckily there are some pain relievers to be found.

In this lightning talk, I will provide a few general tips and design principles for developers to improve their «developer designs» and make working with UI a bit less challenging.