It's complicated...I mean, it really is.

It's usually wise not to show something to a client unless you have some idea of the cost to deliver it - and by cost I don't just mean financial, but time, and people. Sometimes a design is creative an innovative and yes it works, but if it's not off the shelf, or doesn't suit the framework or tech stack, then it's going to take extra effort to deliver and that's something that your business should have a grasp of before proposing to a client.

Once you have some experience in working with a technology or a team or a framework, then you kind of get a feel for what's doable within such constraints. And, yes sometimes a solution needs to be simpler than the one that works best - deliverables are almost always about compromises.

However, a response of "It's complicated" shouldn't be a deal breaker on its own. Most things are complicated. You should at least get a breakdown of why it's complicated, so that you know how to simplify or improve the design in a way that makes things easier for implementation as well as working for the client. Besides you need to know this sort of thing so that on the next project, you can factor in this knew knowledge and not get the same response again.

But the absolute best thing you can do is to work WITH the developers in designing something. If you collaborate from the beginning then there's no surprises for anyone, and each of you feels like you've been involved and have a stake in the design. You iterate around a solution that gradually takes in the constraints, and the developer(s) can't just turn around at the end and say "It's too complicated" - or at least - if it is complicated, you'll already know this, but will have accepted that the benefits are worth the effort. It's hard to share designs before you think they're ready, but you definitely should.

Developers and designers can't work well together if you shut each other out.

It's complicated...I mean, it really is.

It's usually wise not to show something to a client unless you have some idea of the cost to deliver it - and by cost I don't just mean financial, but time, and people. Sometimes a design is creative an innovative and yes it works, but if it's not off the shelf, or doesn't suit the framework or tech stack, then it's going to take extra effort to deliver and that's something that your business should have a grasp of before proposing to a client.

Once you have some experience in working with a technology or a team or a framework, then you kind of get a feel for what's doable within such constraints. And, yes sometimes a solution needs to be simpler than the one that works best - deliverables are almost always about compromises.

However, a response of "It's complicated" shouldn't be a deal breaker on its own. Most things are complicated. You should at least get a breakdown of why it's complicated, so that you know how to simplify or improve the design in a way that makes things easier for implementation as well as working for the client. Besides you need to know this sort of thing so that on the next project, you can factor in this new knowledge and not get the same response again.

But the absolute best thing you can do is to work WITH the developers in designing something. If you collaborate from the beginning then there's no surprises for anyone, and each of you feels like you've been involved and have a stake in the design. You iterate around a solution that gradually takes in the constraints, and the developer(s) can't just turn around at the end and say "It's too complicated" - or at least - if it is complicated, you'll already know this, but will have accepted that the benefits are worth the effort. It's hard to share designs before you think they're ready, but you definitely should.

Developers and designers can't work well together if you shut each other out.