I’m in the middle of writing an article about design reviews, thinking that my whole team finds them as valuable as I do, when a developer comes by my desk and gives me a whole new perspective. (She wants to know how she finds out whats going on now that we don’t have team meetings — I say we have weekly reviews — she gives me a look.)
I typically think our review sessions are great because:
- Designers know they don’t have to think of every teeny thing; at the review someone will come up with another solution
- Other designers learn about areas they might not be subject matter expects in; the team is exposed to the body of work rather than their individual silos
- Visual designers get a chance to discuss interaction design, and design researchers get to discuss visual design etc; expanding everyone’s expertise
- The product is better because of all the iterations and input
But — this developer made me think twice. She asked me if I wanted to review code with her — when I said no, she said then why would she want to discuss design. I said, perhaps its a chance to see where we intersect, if there’s something we can make work through better code. I said understanding the foundations helps all of us — but she wasn’t biting.
So this has me reevaluating. I typically have a team of interaction designers, visual designers, design researchers and web devs meet each week. Sometimes the cast expands if we have a content person, a writer etc.. joining us. Should I be inviting engineers? Am I wasting people’s time?
