“Human-Centric Product Engineering: Why Designers and Developers Should Team Up from Day One” — Jeremy Duvall is the Featured Presenter at IxDA Atlanta Virtual December Event (Video)

It may not appear obvious, but it is essential — a close working relationship between developers and UX designers can make or break a project.  

On Thursday, Dec. 3, 7Factor founder Jeremy Duvall was the featured presenter at IxDA Atlanta’s ongoing events series, virtually presenting “Human-Centric Product Engineering: Why Designers and Developers Should Team Up from Day One” to members of the Atlanta chapter of the Interaction Design Association. 

Watch the full video below (27 minutes): 

Jeremy Duvall with IxDA: Why Designers and Developers Should Team Up

Why is this important? Because user experience is not simply a skin you can wrap around whatever infrastructure a software engineer decides to deploy. Such a solution may appear user-friendly on the surface, but the utility only goes skin-deep. Software architecture patterns, database configurations, and microservice decisions all have profound consequences for the user experience. Truly human-centric systems are optimized from day one, with designers and developers working in close collaboration to enhance the human condition. 

How will people use this? What are they doing before they start? What will they do after? On what devices and in which use cases will they use this? How fast does it need to be? How tech savvy are the users? What will help them succeed? What will hinder them? What loads might the system see as the solution’s popularity grows, and will the solution remain user-friendly at scale? How might all of this change over time? 

UX designers and software engineers should be in conversation about these questions and more from the beginning and at every step along the way.  

Through the use of case studies, Jeremy examined: 

• What goes wrong when design and development are segregated. 

• The benefits of including developers in the UX conversation. 

• The benefits of including designers in software architecture decisions. 

• Best practices for integrating design and development teams. 

Following Jeremy’s feature presentation, IxDA board member David DeMumbrum moderated a spirited, engaging panel discussion that included Jeremy, 7Factor software engineer Kyle Sudu, and Reasons More founder and principal Kris Krava. 

ABOUT IXDA ATLANTA 

IxDA Atlanta is the local chapter of the Interaction Design Association. Since 2009, we’ve put on design slams, socials, film screenings, UX show & tells, and hosted local and national speakers from the professional and academic communities. If you’re into user experience, design, technology, strategy, or just want to learn more, we invite you to join the conversation.