In my experience, a good designer (especially a UX focused designer) certainly leans on focus group, research, interviews, the history of existing solutions, and their own team (including developers) to arrive at a balanced solution to solve the problem.
The advantage that a designer brings to the table is they are (hopefully) looking at the problem with a fresh set of eyes. They aren't constraining their solution to technology or legacy constraints that may or may not be valid.
> So they spec out things that just ain't gonna happen - and if they do happen it's a huge development effort and only after that do you find out that the animations are janky and can't be fixed and it ruins the whole experience.
Then what the designer intended wasn't really what was implemented.
Good designers may push you to do things you think aren't feasible at first glance.
I've seen so many developers drag their heels through the mud "proving" that something won't look right just because they stuck with their stubborn assumption that a design wasn't possible from the start. So of course, they end up producing something that is kludgy and broken, which only helps them assert that their original opinion was correct.
The advantage that a designer brings to the table is they are (hopefully) looking at the problem with a fresh set of eyes. They aren't constraining their solution to technology or legacy constraints that may or may not be valid.
> So they spec out things that just ain't gonna happen - and if they do happen it's a huge development effort and only after that do you find out that the animations are janky and can't be fixed and it ruins the whole experience.
Then what the designer intended wasn't really what was implemented.
Good designers may push you to do things you think aren't feasible at first glance.
I've seen so many developers drag their heels through the mud "proving" that something won't look right just because they stuck with their stubborn assumption that a design wasn't possible from the start. So of course, they end up producing something that is kludgy and broken, which only helps them assert that their original opinion was correct.