The digital design space requires collaboration between multiple team members. Team members and their roles can vary widely depending on the specific project. Teams can consist of user experience (UX) designers, user interface (UI) designers, programmers, visual designers, information architects, business analysts, and product managers, among several other positions, depending on the work needed.

When discussing a digital product, visual and functional design are very important to understand and align. Finding that balance requires close communication between creatives. In this case, creatives consist of visual designers; in the digital world, that means UX and UI designers.

One of the questions we often hear from design teams, student groups, and clients are: How do your UX and visual designers work together? The implication is that there is usually some conflict in the communication between UX and graphic designers. 

At Altezza Creative Solutions, we do our best to ensure everyone is in the room from the start. Our UX and visual designers work together on all projects requiring UX and graphic design expertise. We also ensure a kickoff meeting for each new project, so everyone agrees on its scope and goals. This meeting includes stakeholders, visual and UX designers, project managers, etc. This is an opportunity to discuss the project roadmap and provide a clear understanding of the weeks/months ahead. The kickoff meeting is also an opportunity to get both UX and visual designers in the same room with the client so that any clarifying questions or concerns can be addressed together from the start. Everyone hears the same information at the same time, rather than getting it over the phone, which makes it more likely that something will get lost in translation.

Although our typical projects may start with UX and then move on to visual design, everyone is kept up to date as the project progresses, regardless of their role or position. This means that everyone is present in meetings with clients and regular internal reviews of the project. This gives everyone a clear understanding of where the project stands and what steps must be taken to move forward. Everyone can discuss any obstacles, ask questions about their tasks, and get general feedback before handing anything over to the client.

Keep everyone up to date on research results

UX research naturally takes a lot of time to understand who the user is and therefore requires a lot of primary research. Surveys, ethnographic studies, and user interviews help us better understand what type of people are using the product, their needs and pain points, and so on. While much of this research is in UX designers’ hands, we ensure that our visual designers know the situation.

For example, when we conduct user interviews, having an interviewer and a stenographer present is standard practice. This often results in the visual designer being present at user interviews as a note-taker while the UX designer talks to the user. In this way, visual designers can hear directly from users rather than just reading notes from interviews done by someone else. While this does not mean that visual designers are present at every user interview, the fact that they can hear directly from users and be an integral part of the interview process allows them to understand better who they are designing for. By having this information in addition to the results reported during regular meetings with the rest of the team, visual designers can also use it in their research.

Visual Design research

Developing a design system or changing an existing one is an important task for visual designers. With this in mind, they think from the beginning about what the product design system will look like and what components the product will need. To understand this, they have to do a lot of secondary research in which they look at competitors’ products and study different design systems to see what might work for our customers. Visual designers must consider what they hear from stakeholders and users to develop a plan that works for the final product. Naturally, visual designers will consult with the internal team to get general feedback and opinions at check-in meetings so that everyone knows the project’s visual direction.

Designing with constant feedback

Traditionally, the handoff is the moment in a project when one person or team “hands over” their work to another person or team to begin their work, which is based on the input received. It’s easy to imagine that for a UX design project, this means that UX designers will hand over all of their research materials, as well as things like electronic schematics and other purely UX project materials, to visual designers so that they can develop the visual part of the product. In reality, however, that’s not how our projects are run. 

We need a formal transfer of work from pure UX to pure visual design. Instead, there is often a lot of consultation between UX and visual designers. At the design stage, everyone clearly understands user and customer needs. At this stage, you must use this information to develop a product that works for everyone. 

Altezza Creative Solutions’ UX and visual designers are incredibly communicative during this phase. There is constant correspondence to help with minor tweaks and updates to the design documentation to ensure the product is usable and ready for customer review.

Frameworks, in particular, serve as a means of communication between UX and visual designers. For example, a visual designer can develop visual compositions based on a client-approved version of the wireframes. However, after reviewing them, the client may ask for minor changes, so the UX designer will work with the client to make changes to the sketches (which are more economical) based on their feedback. The UX designer then sends the finalized layout to the visual designer, who changes the sketches.

Regular communication and sharing allow everyone to be accountable for the project and not leave the result to one person or team. We create our best designs when we work hand-in-hand from start to finish. While some tasks are handled by UX designers and others by visual designers, everyone is working to create the best product and provide users with a positive experience. Our UX designers know about UI and our UI designers know about UX. This makes our design process fast and efficient as they can anticipate the needs of the other.

Contact us today for a free UX consultation.

The digital design space requires collaboration between multiple team members. Team members and their roles can vary widely depending on the specific project. Teams can consist of user experience (UX) designers, user interface (UI) designers, programmers, visual designers, information architects, business analysts, and product managers, among several other positions, depending on the work needed.

When discussing a digital product, visual and functional design are very important to understand and align. Finding that balance requires close communication between creatives. In this case, creatives consist of visual designers; in the digital world, that means UX and UI designers.

One of the questions we often hear from design teams, student groups, and clients are: How do your UX and visual designers work together? The implication is that there is usually some conflict in the communication between UX and graphic designers. 

At Altezza Creative Solutions, we do our best to ensure everyone is in the room from the start. Our UX and visual designers work together on all projects requiring UX and graphic design expertise. We also ensure a kickoff meeting for each new project, so everyone agrees on its scope and goals. This meeting includes stakeholders, visual and UX designers, project managers, etc. This is an opportunity to discuss the project roadmap and provide a clear understanding of the weeks/months ahead. The kickoff meeting is also an opportunity to get both UX and visual designers in the same room with the client so that any clarifying questions or concerns can be addressed together from the start. Everyone hears the same information at the same time, rather than getting it over the phone, which makes it more likely that something will get lost in translation.

Although our typical projects may start with UX and then move on to visual design, everyone is kept up to date as the project progresses, regardless of their role or position. This means that everyone is present in meetings with clients and regular internal reviews of the project. This gives everyone a clear understanding of where the project stands and what steps must be taken to move forward. Everyone can discuss any obstacles, ask questions about their tasks, and get general feedback before handing anything over to the client.

Keep everyone up to date on research results

UX research naturally takes a lot of time to understand who the user is and therefore requires a lot of primary research. Surveys, ethnographic studies, and user interviews help us better understand what type of people are using the product, their needs and pain points, and so on. While much of this research is in UX designers’ hands, we ensure that our visual designers know the situation.

For example, when we conduct user interviews, having an interviewer and a stenographer present is standard practice. This often results in the visual designer being present at user interviews as a note-taker while the UX designer talks to the user. In this way, visual designers can hear directly from users rather than just reading notes from interviews done by someone else. While this does not mean that visual designers are present at every user interview, the fact that they can hear directly from users and be an integral part of the interview process allows them to understand better who they are designing for. By having this information in addition to the results reported during regular meetings with the rest of the team, visual designers can also use it in their research.

Visual Design research

Developing a design system or changing an existing one is an important task for visual designers. With this in mind, they think from the beginning about what the product design system will look like and what components the product will need. To understand this, they have to do a lot of secondary research in which they look at competitors’ products and study different design systems to see what might work for our customers. Visual designers must consider what they hear from stakeholders and users to develop a plan that works for the final product. Naturally, visual designers will consult with the internal team to get general feedback and opinions at check-in meetings so that everyone knows the project’s visual direction.

Designing with constant feedback

Traditionally, the handoff is the moment in a project when one person or team “hands over” their work to another person or team to begin their work, which is based on the input received. It’s easy to imagine that for a UX design project, this means that UX designers will hand over all of their research materials, as well as things like electronic schematics and other purely UX project materials, to visual designers so that they can develop the visual part of the product. In reality, however, that’s not how our projects are run. 

We need a formal transfer of work from pure UX to pure visual design. Instead, there is often a lot of consultation between UX and visual designers. At the design stage, everyone clearly understands user and customer needs. At this stage, you must use this information to develop a product that works for everyone. 

Altezza Creative Solutions’ UX and visual designers are incredibly communicative during this phase. There is constant correspondence to help with minor tweaks and updates to the design documentation to ensure the product is usable and ready for customer review.

Frameworks, in particular, serve as a means of communication between UX and visual designers. For example, a visual designer can develop visual compositions based on a client-approved version of the wireframes. However, after reviewing them, the client may ask for minor changes, so the UX designer will work with the client to make changes to the sketches (which are more economical) based on their feedback. The UX designer then sends the finalized layout to the visual designer, who changes the sketches.

Regular communication and sharing allow everyone to be accountable for the project and not leave the result to one person or team. We create our best designs when we work hand-in-hand from start to finish. While some tasks are handled by UX designers and others by visual designers, everyone is working to create the best product and provide users with a positive experience. Our UX designers know about UI and our UI designers know about UX. This makes our design process fast and efficient as they can anticipate the needs of the other.

Contact us today for a free UX consultation.