Designing in collaboration: content and interaction
There’s so much power in design roles working together
Beth and Selina spent a year working together on a major project for Her Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS). Beth is an interaction designer, Selina is a content designer. But (spoiler alert) this didn’t mean we stuck to our disciplines.
Having a multidisciplinary team is one of the 10 points in the Service Standard. And designing in collaboration is a key part of how we work at dxw. But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. People have different styles of communication and preferences for how they like to work.
For example, some people like to pair on a problem. This could be a video call where you work out loud, sharing your thoughts (and your screen) to solve a problem together. Others might prefer to tackle a problem alone. Taking time to deep dive into the problem space, before resurfacing and playing back work to colleagues.
Personal preferences can also change according to your task, situation or desired outputs. So whilst every team and project differs, we wanted to share what worked for us.
Regular design catch ups
One of the first things we did was to set up a short weekly meeting on Monday mornings. It was a time where we would get together with our user researcher. We would catch up on what happened the previous week, and discuss our priorities for the coming week. We’d also share any thoughts, ideas and concerns.
Selina
I was working part-time on this project so my biggest concern was feeling like I was always going to be playing catch-up. There would inevitably be meetings and research sessions that I wouldn’t have time to join.
I found it useful to have these regular catch-ups in our diaries because I never had to worry about what I’d missed. I could always rely on my colleagues to catch me up. It also helped me to plan my week and prioritise my time, so that I could make myself available when needed.
Beth
I found these sessions to be really valuable as we’d have alignment on what we were planning to work on, and we could highlight any blockers we might come across over the week. It also meant we could get up to speed on progress with tickets if any of us had been off project.
Checking in with each other was one of the things I really enjoyed and valued. The project was quite challenging and there were a lot of moving parts, so having time to chat and discuss what was happening was really helpful and reassuring.
Solving a problem together
Selina
What I appreciated the most about working with Beth was how open she was in her ways of working. We would often block out an hour or two a week to work on something together. During that time Beth would show me designs that she’d done and explain her thinking. She never tired (or seemed to tire!) of the many questions that I’d ask.
There’s a blurred line between the responsibilities of an interaction designer and a content designer. You can’t design screens or user journeys in a vacuum without the words, and vice versa. A decision about an interactive element will more than likely influence the words you choose.
These sessions were so valuable because we could discuss why something was designed a certain way, and try different things out. It allowed us to think together about what a user might need. What were our riskiest assumptions and what should be validated by research.
Beth
Selina and I bounced ideas off each other, asked questions, shared thoughts, shared concerns and looked to understand the problems that we were having so we could share the evidence with the team. I felt very comfortable challenging Selina’s thoughts and decisions and equally having mine challenged too.
We worked closely with our subject matter experts and by spending time together looking at some of the grittier problems, we were able to share our thoughts on a design or process. If either of us were on leave, or weren’t able to attend certain meetings, I knew I could count on Selina to cover any design changes because of the close-knit pairing we’d done.
We used various Miro and Figma boards to flesh out new concepts and ideas, leaving comments and updates, spent some time using the GOV.UK prototyping kit and GitHub to track changes. We were always looking for the most efficient ways to work as a team, and it was a good opportunity to learn together and try out new ways of working.
Selina was working on another project within the same service area at HMPPS so was able to share her experiences and learnings. She brought insights from research and feedback about what had worked well for other teams, which helped the wider service to align by using similar designs, patterns and components.
Slack messages, comments, and threads
Selina
It wasn’t always possible for us to find time together. And sometimes I’d need to spend some time thinking through a problem before pairing with Beth or discussing with the rest of the team. Whenever we worked on something separately we’d usually update each other on what we’d done. Whether that was a Slack message or a comment left on Figma.
I liked that we could be flexible in how we communicated, especially given that I was part-time. Beth was great at leaving comments that explained why she had designed something a certain way. Or highlighting a design problem that needed further thought.
If we were considering changing the wording of a question or the layout we could usually chat over Slack. But if it was something more complex we’d put time in our diaries so we could talk it through.
Beth
A lot of people have different preferences when it comes to sharing and discussing ideas. Some people like quick Slack messages, others prefer having huddles or quick calls. We learned what worked best for each other to get the most out of the time we had.
We shared regular updates on the progress of a ticket through Slack, and for any further discussions we needed we scheduled calls or huddles or discussed during our user centred design catch ups. General check-ins on Slack also helped us to pick up work and provide updates so we were both clear on work that had been done, or was still in progress.
We used comment threads on Trello, Figma and Miro to share any progress updates too which were really helpful whilst we were working on the design, but also when going back to remind ourselves about the things we had done.
Final thoughts
Selina
I really enjoyed working with Beth and when I’ve reflected on what made designing in collaboration so easy, it was because we communicated so well. We weren’t precious about our design work. We shared our work early and often, and invited each other’s feedback.
I appreciated that we didn’t fall into the dreaded trap of an interaction designer passing on wireframes to the content designer for a “content review”. Possibly the two words content designers dread the most. I felt involved in all the important design decisions.
Beth
Although Selina was part-time, she was still very present and I was inspired by her ability to switch between two projects. It felt so easy working together. As mentioned above, we had many different ways to communicate with each other and share different designs or the progress of something we were working on.
I think there’s so much power in design roles working together. We challenged each other, discussed new ideas, advocated for one another and understood the importance of working together as a pair. And when challenges came up on the project, it was good to have a colleague to share some thoughts with and take a breather together.