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Ask DN: What's your workflow when handing off PSDs to an iOS Developer?

10 years ago from Alyssa Pelletier, Designer at Camp 4 Creative

  • Ketan Anjaria, 10 years ago

    No No No No No No No. That's like designing a suit and handing it to manufacturing without any instructions. Sure they can figure it out but much easier it you spec if out. Yes it takes time but all good collaboration does. Even if you have 20 screens, that shouldn't mean 20 different font styles. Actually why do you have 20 screens?

    1 point
    • Will Hitchcock, 10 years ago

      It's more like designing a suit using a standard suit-designing software that includes measurements and all important information. You then hand that suit design over to manufacturing who could use the same software to get all the necessary information. Instead, they demand that you print out screenshot of the design and put post-it notes on it detailing all of the information that was in the original file.

      2 points
      • Ketan Anjaria, 10 years ago

        Haha, maybe my analogy isn't perfect but while working with a developer who understands line heights, type and color is great, it's not in their job description. Basically they are really good at writing code and it's your job as designer to teach and improve their design output. Design is about sending your message across and that includes brand guidelines. It's not a dev's job to figure out that message, it's yours. Also it's just a nice thing to do and saves them time.

        0 points
    • Alyssa Pelletier, 10 years ago

      Wow, seven Nos!

      Ok, here's the thing. It's really nothing like your analogy. That would be the case if the information in Photoshop was totally inaccessible, only visible to me... but it's not. One who is not me could just as easily open up the program and figure out the text color, size, and weight, the margins, etc.

      Additionally, spec'ing is not the norm for web based projects. Using your suit analogy, one would be crazy to hand off without creating the same detailed annotation. Do you do this for web projects as well?

      I wasn't arguing that I don't want to do the work, I was just asking what the normal practice is. Thank you for weighing in.

      0 points
      • Ketan Anjaria, 10 years ago

        I think your key word there is "figure out". That leads to interpretation and I rather have really strong specs up front. In fact lots of time, while creating design specs I find things like inconsistent margins or extraneous type styles that can improve my design. In a professional work flow, the designer's job is to ensure developers have a specific and actionable guideline to work from.

        0 points
        • Alyssa Pelletier, 10 years ago

          That makes more sense, thank you for clarifying. So back to the question I asked in my comment – do you also make the same type of specs for web projects as well?

          0 points