Programmers and the Content Managers That Love Them

3 Tips on Communicating with Web Programmers

A wife asks her husband, a computer programmer, "Please go to the store for me and buy one carton of milk, and if they have eggs, get six."

A short time later the husband comes back with six cartons of milk.

The wife asks him, "Why did you buy six cartons of milk?"

He replied, "They had eggs."

Computer programmers think differently, especially than us creative types who are often a little loosey goosey (raises hand). Programmers think in binary terms, and we need to keep that in mind when communicating with them.

Something I learned early on as a content manager when working on website enhancements with programmers is to be explicit about what functionality you expect to remain the same and what you hope will change. In a communicator’s brain an “enhancement” might mean that you keep the current functionality but if you don’t say it, the programmer won’t necessarily develop it.

It is just as important to tell the programmer what you don’t want. If you don't want to add more clicks or you don't want certain content to be available on mobile are important details to communicate early on in the process.

Lastly, ask a lot of questions especially if you are looking at wireframes or mock ups. What will the behavior be on mobile? Does this meet ADA compliance guidelines? Is it intuitive for our users?

Larger companies have whole teams dedicated to UI/UX, accessibility, Q/A testing, and more. Most smaller organizations don’t have that luxury so as a content manager, you are the advocate for the user. Make sure the user doesn't end up with too many cartons of milk.