2 posts tagged with "design handoff"

Front-end web development has come a long way since the early days of HTML and CSS. We have components, design systems, and all kinds of goodies built into the browser. Despite these advances, the divide between front-end engineering and design seems to be growing with every passing year. Developers and designers find themselves on opposing sides, striving to collaborate effectively but constrained by the institutionalized separation of their roles.

Fortunately the tides are turning. New tech is bridging the gap, and the lives of front-end developers will never be the same.

I’ve been working for over a year to improve the working relationship between web designers and engineers. The current best practice is characterized by the “design handoff”, where designers provide pictures of app screens to engineers for implementation. Approaching this problem, it’s hard not to notice a grassy knoll littered with tombstones: the hill that others have died on, trying and failing to “eliminate the handoff”.