What does it mean to be a creative developer in 2011?

So this is the first article for CT365, and in my eyes that deserves a big subject. And there’s no bigger subject than ‘What is creative development?’ After the year we’ve just had, it does no harm to step back and try to define what this discipline really is at its core, given the wide variety of different interpretations we come across.

To many, the lack of a clear mission statement for our discipline has been caused mainly by the dominance of Adobe Flash in the world we work in. For many years it was simply the best (if not the only) tool for the job in hand. With so much Flash work being done, it’s all too easy for teams full of experts to be seen as ‘Flash teams’, rather than looking beyond the tool to the task it has been used for.
Teams specifically dedicated to Flash development do exist, of course, as such teams do for .Net or Java development, so it’s a justifiable conclusion to draw. But that’s not how we, creative developers, position ourselves. We have always been technology-agnostic, and we have developed projects using a range of technologies. We just happen to have been using one particular technology rather a lot…

And then Steve did what Steve did, and Steve said what Steve said, and for a while, confusion reigned.

I’m not going to address the pros and cons of Apple’s ‘no Flash’ decision, the subsequent squabble between them and Adobe, or the flame wars between the fundamentalists on both sides. I think you’ll find it all well documented elsewhere, if you can summon up the willpower to wade through the diatribe and unearth some balanced opinions. I’m far more interested in the impact of these events on the community who call themselves ‘creative developers’ or perhaps ‘creative technologists’.

However technology-agnostic we may be, it’s true that (until recently) Flash was the overwhelmingly dominant tool of our trade. So when the dominance of that tool is challenged, how do we respond? Well, certainly not by clinging on with white knuckles, impervious to the change taking place around us.

I entered the world of creative technology via Java applets and the legendary Macromedia Director (I’m older than I look…). I loved using it, but I also saw how Flash was passing it by. There’s no room for nostalgia when you need to make a living, right? Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not writing off Flash. It still has a large and exciting role to play, but the fragmentation in platforms and technologies means that there are a whole load of new toys in the playground. It’s incumbent upon us, as the technology-agnostic and creative technologists we purport to be, to be able to apply our skills to these new technologies as effectively as we have been doing with Flash for the past few years.

In reality, this means reiterating and emphasising those parts of the discipline that do not relate to actually writing code at all. And it’s those parts that are really at the heart of creative development.

For several years, my message at conferences has been one of designer/developer collaboration, with a goal of designing tangible things that can actually be built, all parties on the same page and mutual consideration and understanding. More recently, however, that message has shifted to emphasise how we design something that can actually be used. This is different: it means not only understanding how to help designers understand what is possible technically, but also how a user will interact with the results. Therefore, we help the design team to create something as beautifully usable as it is technically achievable.

Interface. That’s what we do. Anywhere there is interaction, that’s where we live. With any platform, in any language, on any device. And I suggest that perhaps the most important part of creative development takes place before any coding begins. At AKQA in 2010, that lead to a re-emphasising and re-focusing of our work during the pre-build phases of projects.

This is the time to work closely with user experience teams as well as designers, adding insights to their work, and not just taking wireframes as templates for subsequent development. This is the time to not just understand the differences between devices and platforms and the context of their use, but to communicate these clearly, so that the interface and functionality we design reflects that context. This is the time to not simply take the plans and implement them, but collaborate with all the other disciplines involved to ensure that what is going to be built is the best solution for our clients and in the best interests of the users.

With these values at the start, we can turn an outstanding piece of software engineering into something that is a delight to use.

Creative development is almost unique in its breadth of collaboration: from concept to deployment – only project managers compare. It is this combination of usability insight and technical skill that defines it as a discipline.

Having re-established these principles at AKQA, we’ve had many exciting opportunities in 2010, and have many more ahead of us in 2011. Working alongside strategists, user experience teams and designers, we’ve been able to define the interfaces for products for a variety of tablets and mobile devices. We’re helping to envision the direction of in-car connected systems, the impact of social media and the future of connected TV. Hopefully, we’ll be able to help build out these solutions alongside our technical architects and software engineers.

As an aside, it does appear to me that Flash is something of an academy for creative development. So many of the techniques and insights we bring to projects, on the variety of platforms and technologies we work with, have been learned and perfected in our experiences with Flash.

In answer to the title question, ‘What does it mean to be a creative developer in 2011?’ – I think it means more than ever, both for me at AKQA and also for us as a community. The proliferation of devices and platforms creates a huge gap for people who understand the context these devices are used in, and the kind of interfaces they require. I look forward to a year during which we can bring our talents to bear in more areas than ever before. 2010 was a landmark year. It’s the year Apple threw the cat among the pigeons, the year Android really kicked in, and the year a whole lot of opportunities opened up for everyone who considers themselves to be a creative developer.

About the Author:
Name: Andy Hood
Bio:
Andy is Exec Creative Development Director at AKQA, creating rich experiences on
all platforms and devices for the worlds biggest brands.
Location: London, UK
Company: Executive Creative Development Director @ AKQA