The talk tries to highlight the reasons designer and developers think the way they think and work the way they work with each other. It also tries to suggest remedial measures and cultural probes that can aid the process of easing the collaboration between the said tribes. www.tinkerform.com

2. What is technology?

3. What is design?

4. When they come together...

10. Let’s talk about Android

11. Android - A timeline
2003
Andy Rubin: smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner’s location and preferences.
2005
Google acquires Android. The decision was made to use Linux as the basis for the Android OS, and that also meant that Android
itself could be offered to third-party mobile phone manufacturers for free.
2007
Eric Schmidt : Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about
over the past few weeks. Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models.
2017
2 Billion+ People using the Android Platform
~2017
Designing/Developing for the next billion

12. Because of Android,
2 Billion people, from the city to the
villages, access financial institution,
healthcare services, information,
education, news, commerce, work
management tools, entertainment &
more!

13. An Anecdote : Impact at the baseline
There’s always a top and then there’s a
baseline. Some people try to raise the bar at the
top and take science, arts etc forward. Then you
have people working at the baseline. If you take
the baseline up by the slightest notch, you have
elevated the status of humanity.

14. I think Android has been elevating the humanity
baseline successfully over the years and it’ll
continue to do so.
People sitting in this room have played a hand in
THIS.
An Anecdote : Impact at the baseline

15. Android has fueled Entrepreneurship
Out of all the time I have worked with startups (around 30-40) over the last few years, almost all of
them started with Android. It’s the best testbed for the validation of an idea.

16. The complexity that comes with Android!
It takes so long to optimize it for so many devices & resolutions!

17. The complexity that comes with Android!
Then research shows that people don’t lift their thumbs beyond the bottom one third part. WTF!
We had to invent a “lifesaver” button at the bottom.

18. The complexity that comes with Android!
Then there’s the UI pattern claimers that demand us to use such and such patterns in such and such
way. What if my context demands a new UI pattern? What if I can use it to solve a unique problem?

19. Experience with Developers
The first time I was called to review a developed version of my design
What I gave as Design
What I got called to
review...

20. Experience with Developers
It kept on going the same way for every project ,except a few times. In the meantime, my Design skills
were improving but what finally reached to the people was not what I wanted
What I gave as Design What I got called to review...

21. Experience with Developers
Only recently I spoke to few devs, yaar what problems do you face while working with designers?
And then she started with…
you guys don’t manage your assets well; i am expected to extract them at times when i don’t
even know your tools; you keep on using new colors outside of the palette - every new design
has a different shade of grey; if it’s a global product you don’t tell us how it supposed to look
for other languages; you don’t give us design for all resolutions; you don’t even know what
constraints dev has; you design fancy stuff and then we are given little time to code it; you
upload design and don’t notify us; you come only at the final review stage; sometime the
design changes in between & we are still expected to deliver on the deadline; sometimes the
product guy comes and says oh i don’t like this change this; you don’t give us animations; you
don’t give us all states; you don’t give us the error screen; i have to do parts of your work along
with building the functionality and getting the data on the screen!!!

22. Experience with Developers
So I went on a guilt trip for a few
hours… I was like fuck! i have been
making developer’s life so difficult
for so long. knowingly or
unknowingly.

23. The barrier between Designers & Developers
That’s when I figured {it was really a no brainer by then!} there such a huge divide between tech and
design.
We don’t even know each other well.
We solve problems for others but we aren’t able to solve the ones among us?
I think this should be the biggest agenda on any designer or developer table right now.

24. I think it boils down to acknowledging 3 things:
Design & Development
learning Silos
Tools Dialogue
The barrier between Designers & Developers

25. Beyond the barrier
How would we interact with AI? How would we interact
with context aware solutions? How would we interact
with self driving cars? How would we make technology
assisting the ones who really need it {inclusion}. How
would we deal with the issue of ethics? How would we
deal with virtual spaces immersive than reality? How
would we solve the problems arising by time spent with
screens?

26. Let’s start with...
Design & Technology Jams.
A Tool that bridges the handoff gap.

27. Prakrithy Pradeep
prakrithy@tinkerform.com
Co-founder, Co-chair and Program Director, Hexagon Bangalore
Faculty, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology | UXR, Tinkerform
Vivek Sahi
vivek@tinkerform.com
Co-founder, Tinkerform