Abbey Smalley just posted a good article on “Why Your Developers Aren’t Following Your Brand Standards” I find this interesting because I keep seeing sites or sub-sites that fail to follow any standard at all. It usually isn’t for lack of a published standard. Most likely, the developers were busy or the company failed to implement a decent set of governance around UI and Brand standards.
I like Abbey’s approach because she notes that following standards cuts both ways and while developers need to follow them, others need to better communicate them and to create scenarios where it’s easy to follow the standard.
Trust me when I say I’m not trying to pick a fight with this topic. I by no means am implying that developers are lazy or can’t read a document stating how things should be created. My argument is that in a fast-paced environment, we often are not setting up our developers for success.
Be Clear With Your Team on How You Plan to Communicate New Styles and Updates. It’s becoming more commonplace to be developing a website before all designs and brand standards are fully established. It isn’t best-case scenario, but it is often real life scenario due to tight deadlines and changing business goals.
I won’t spoil her article by giving away the three best practices for a style guide………….
