Avoid the #1 Mistake That Founder Make: Starting Development Before Design

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Building a product is a HUGE undertaking (similarly is buying a home, coincidentally!). Both require capital, a plan and a great foundation.


Think of UI/UX designers as the architects of the building — they say what goes where and they provide a blueprint. Developers and engineering are the construction of the home. Remember, both experts have points of view in different areas, so it’s important to weigh these and do what is ultimately best for your business.


The number one mistake we see people make is that they start development BEFORE design. We hear from founder after founder about how if they had just started design first, come up with a prototype and validated with their customers, that they would’ve saved so much time and money in development.


It’s also a very vague and ambiguous process to get a quote for development. Developers usually need to see the design or get a deep understanding of the product. This can be a time-consuming process in itself that can easily be solved by beginning the design first!


For a designer to successfully architect your product, you’ll want to provide:

  • Information about your target audience
  • Brand guidelines or marketing materials for reference
  • Text for the app or website
  • Examples of designs you like
  • And.. drumroll please.. you’ll want to make SURE to express the three main goals you want your users to do when they come into your platform


For developers to successfully construct your product, you’ll want to provide:

  • The blueprint from the designer
  • Answer questions about how you want it built and which platform you’re looking to build it on
  • Talk through what the quality assurance process looks like to make sure construction matches the design.


By the end of your construction, you get to walk into a new, shiny home! And the best part is, when you walk in, everything is the way it was planned. For example, if you walk into your office, you’d expect a laptop, coffee, etc. If you walk into your bedroom, you would expect clothes. This is what makes a great user experience, because if you’re navigating around a website or an app, you don’t have to think about where to go or what you’ll see, everything is exactly as expected!


We hope this helps in designing your next house.. cough, cough, I mean product!

Interested in chatting more with us about UI/UX design? Contact us at info@irisdesigncollaborative.com.

Posted on:

July 14, 2022

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Design

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