Designdev

Designdev is a term used to describe the integrated practice of design and development within product creation. It denotes collaborative work that blends user experience design and interface design with software engineering, to deliver functional, usable products.

In practice, designdev refers to cross-functional teams and processes that reduce handoffs between designers and engineers. It emphasizes early involvement of developers in design discussions and iterative validation of ideas through prototypes and working software.

Origins: The term gained prominence as agile and lean startups sought faster delivery and cohesive user experiences. It is also associated with the rise of design systems and component-based architectures that bridge design and code.

Practices: design thinking, rapid prototyping, system thinking, design systems, design tokens, design-to-code handoff, living documentation, and shared tooling (for example, collaborative design tools and versioned code repositories).

Impact and challenges: When implemented well, designdev improves usability, consistency, and time-to-market, while enabling better communication. Challenges include aligning performance goals with design goals, managing technical debt, and balancing speed with design quality.

Brand usage: Some organizations use "Designdev" as a brand name or framework for their services, but the term is also used generically to describe a collaborative approach that integrates design and development.