Unfortunately, there is a strong us-vs-them mentality among engineers.
There's also a resistance to accept aesthetics as relevant to a product's success. Part of this is due to the misconception that "because I can write UI code, I can also design it adequately." Engineers tend to assemble UIs sequentially--they see the process as adding one widget at a time until paths exist to each software/hardware feature. The concept of envisioning/visualizing the full, final product ahead of time is foreign to most. I get a lot of funny looks when I focus on pixel-perfect accuracy when designing UIs-- but folks are always impressed with the refinement of the final product. Engaging your engineering counterparts in the early stages of a design/redesign process may help: ** involve them in creating paper prototypes ** give constructive feedback for their work (not just "this looks wrong/bad/confusing"... you know why it's a poor choice, but they may not) ** cite real-world examples (web sites, software products, etc.) when explaining your design choices Good luck! Matt L. Software Engineer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37605 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
