Hi, Engineering, I’m UX. Let’s be friends

The relationship between user experience (UX) and engineering is a crucial factor when it comes to generating technical innovation. After spending a week at the SXSW Interactive festival earlier this year, I was struck by the number of missed opportunities to nurture this relationship or even understand it better. UX professionals and engineers just don’t talk, and when they do they usually speak different languages.

If we can chisel away at the UX/engineering divide and get the conversation flowing, we have much to gain in the quest for innovation. But how do we get these folks to be friends when they are so different? The simple formula for developing this relationship is that you should be talking. A lot. You should be sitting together, meeting together, and reviewing each other’s work on a daily basis.

Here are three relationship tips for UX and engineering...