
Why The Shortage Of UI Engineers Is Going To Get Worse - ashitvora
http://www.usabilitycounts.com/2010/10/20/six-reasons-why-the-shortage-of-ui-engineers-is-going-to-get-worse/
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elbrodeur
While I agree with the central theme ("UI/UX Designers and developers are
going to get harder to find") I don't agree with a lot of his reasons.

He's obviously not an engineer and doesn't really understand AJAX, jQuery or
HTML5.

Personally, I believe the shortage is going to get worse because there is
going to be an increase in demand and there are VERY few paths through
traditional educational outlets that will produce a good UI/UX
designer/engineer. HCI at Stanford is the closest I've seen recently while
interviewing candidates, and even then it has less to do with web technologies
than interaction principles.

~~~
meric
Just wondering, what really makes a good UX engineer? I'm studying HCI at a
university other than stanford, and the course is total BS... I knew the
principles we were supposed to learn were important, but having whole lectures
spent on comparing command languages vs natural languages (i.e stuff like
command languages are fast and good for experts and natural languages are good
for novices... how to make prototypes out of postit notes... a low-fidelity
prototype is a cheap prototype whilst a high fidelity prototype is
expensive... Stuff I could tell you myself) makes it hard to spend my time
focusing on the course. :(

The only useful thing I've learnt is that when you're doing a questionnaire
with lickert scales, don't use mean because the distances between each point
on the scale isn't equal...

~~~
wdewind
It kind of depends on the scale you want to operate at. If you are Google
level, UX tends to be VERY mathematically (statistically) driven. In which
case I would focus on a degree in math.

Towards the lower end (read: almost everywhere else) of that scale, you're
best bet is actually to look at a design degree, and learn the tech on your
own.

Your best bet is experience in the field. Very few schools are teaching comp
sci programs that are worth anything (Stanford, CMU a few others), and I have
seen almost nothing of value in academia in terms of product/UX development
(which is why I say focus on Math or pure Design). The web stuff you're really
going to have to teach yourself, I think for at least another 3-4 years, maybe
longer.

The author is somewhat right about the commoditization of the backend, but
it's not to India, it's to frameworks like RoR. Larger companies that require
serious, responsive scaling, sharding and cacheing are not, and will not be,
outsourcing to these frameworks. But it's definitely not to India (data entry,
sure).

~~~
timcederman
Google is a combination of qualitative user research for the initial design
backed by quantitative analysis upon release.

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timr
_"Who needs a backend engineer when you can do most of the work using REST and
AJAX calls?"_

Yep, it's just that easy. Everyone knows that AJAX calls are outsourced to
Chinese and Indian people on the back end. One per request.

~~~
andrewjshults
Ignoring the gaping holes in the engineering side of the argument (because
clearly there is you use the AJAX "language" to make calls to a magic blackbox
that handles all of the data storage, notifications, business logic, etc), the
UI/UX arguments aren't even fully baked.

For mobile applications he recommends developing a mobile website instead of a
native app. The biggest downfall of mobile websites is that iphone and android
have rather different vocabularies for user interactions (hardware buttons vs.
all touch screen) and what makes sense on one platform often is confusing on
the other. That's probably the biggest downfall I've seen to using a framework
like PhoneGap. Yes, you can quickly mock things up to try (which is great for
iterating on the UI/UX aspects) but there either end up being two versions
(sharing some common code for logic/backend interface) with different UIs
built on PhoneGap or you go ahead and build native apps to fully fit into the
expected user experiences from both platforms.

Is it silly to ignore UI/UX, of course, but expecting the backend to just
magically work (and work well) is just as unwise.

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dinkumthinkum
What hand-wavy nonsense. Yeah, programmers are just commodity and we will just
offshore everything. This guy just states this flippantly without even
acknowledging the several problems associated with that in Yet Another Case Of
UX Worship. The idea that you don't need "backend guys" because you are just
going to make "AJAX Calls" makes this guy just look silly.

I mean, yeah, Google wasted money on all those engineers. Why did they build
on that infrastructure? All they needed was a few AJAX calls, duh! Finally,
Google figured it out and through away all that massive indexing set of
algorithms so they could just make AJAX calls.

I don't see what this guy's fascination is with AJAX and "making calls from
Javascript" or how this means we don't need programmers anymore. Apparently,
we can just appeal to some vague "throw it in the cloud and it will scale"
mentality.

What makes it worse for me is that apparently this Usability guru was involved
in this website:

<http://www.pickanexcuse.com/>

Really ... a usability guru?

~~~
warnickr
I agree. Usability is important, and people who are good at it are valuable,
but to turn that into "all this backend stuff is going to be outsourced" is
ridiculous. Generally, building a great app requires highly-skilled people
working in all areas of the application.

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bmcleod
I like the general idea of putting more focus on good UX Engineers. But, this
guy seems to think that making the back-end support a bunch of Ajax calls is
easier than.

In fact, you start needing more work to make it efficient since you have to
break down everything into exactly what needs to be in that call with
appropriate permissions etc.

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dennisgorelik
Google is mostly about backend data processing. Google's front-end effort is
nice, but dwarfs in comparison with the backend accomplishments. The same is
true for most other businesses. So the demand for backend engineers would
definitely be higher. And it's easier to outsource UI than outsource backend,
because backend is typically more complex and harder to test and communicate
about, so keeping developers closer to business users is even more important
in for backend functionality, than for front-end functionality.

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usabilitycounts
(I'm the author of the article...)

As one comedian said, "I don't come down to McDonalds and make fun of you
while you're working..."

You might not agree with all my reasons or some of my thoughts. However, the
indifference of great UI by engineers kills companies. I have sat in
environments time and time again where lack of attention of detail creates
horrible user experiences, and this affect the bottom line in a very real way.

This should read as, "you are bitting the hand that feeds you."

The best engineers I have met ask questions, and have a genuine concern for
the user. They want to create great experiences. The engineers that don't want
to get involved in a positive way without being a destructive gatekeeper, I
have no time for them.

We have now reached a tipping point where most companies are recognizing the
need for great user experiences, because poor one's cost companies time and
money, both in lost customers and lost productivity.

This indifference by engineers is the reason why a UI Engineer position was
created by many companies; they realize that most back end engineers just want
to code in a way that most people at car manufacturing plants want to put the
bolt on.

That mentality didn't work out well for GM and other car companies. It's also
not working out for most technology companies.

You can bitch all you want, but if you aren't contributing to the bottom line,
you're just a cost center. And cost centers get outsourced, plain and simple.

~~~
dinkumthinkum
You're missing the point and kind of making an ass out of yourself while doing
it. You can't just say "You might not agree with all my reasons" and make some
strawman. Most of the criticism has been around how you flippantly dismiss the
skill of programming while serve up UX design on a pedestal but yet you make
it out as if we are dismissing usability design. It's like a delusion of
persecution. Also, I fail to see how a "UX designer" is any less a cost center
than a programmer. Maybe you're not sure what your words mean?

Also, I have managed those outsourced situations and you are naive: "plain and
simple." I mean seriously, either respond to the criticisms like an adult or
don't play at all.

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zabraxias
I am an experienced UI developer and while I agree with the main point of the
article I would like to note that not all front-end positions are created
equal.

I've worked at amazing shops where there was a clear role definition (made
easier by the beauty that is Django) and the expected code quality was really
high. There were project based code reviews to ensure this.

I've worked at places where a front-end developer meant you write Java in
Eclipse (which took 15 mins to launch) that in turn generated JS that
manipulated the DOM to create your markup. This is common practice in more
places than we realize.

If you're a UI dev do your homework before accepting any position. The market
is really dry for our field and people on the interview will lie to get you to
come over. I've been to over a dozen interviews in just the past year (and I
am thinking I should write more about this) and the industry expectations are
simply rarely properly determined of what the role entails.

Apologies for the rant. Downvote if you sense my frustration :)

~~~
STHayden
I'd love to hear more about interviews. As a front end dev with a BFA in
design I've had surprisingly easy time finding jobs. I'm always interested in
hearing about what other experiences people are having.

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fookyong
people who pride themselves on being "UX experts" are the most obnoxious
people in our industry.

there, I said it.

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flacon
As an experienced Frontend Developer thats worked for a number of startups,
this article is not well written. I prefer Developer rather than Engineer. It
does seem like really good frontend developers are becoming more rare because
it takes a unique blend of technical skill (mainly javascript), understanding
Usability/UX and having aesthetic tendencies. More and more companies are
looking for Frontend developers that can also write Framework template code
(Rails, Django) which requires even more skill or exp. Its kinda a specialized
niche. FYI, I am currently looking for a new job if anyone has an opening.....

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sp4rki
I agree with the sentiment that a UX/UI engineering need is going to be a
necessary requirement not easily fulfilled in the near future. The good ones
are fluent in back-end keyboard mashing, front-end spit shining, and
everything in between. They need to have design skills, programming chops,
user experience knowledge, a taste for the tasteful, a writers intellect, and
a certain je ne sais quoi insight into what makes people want to use your
product. They are not designers, nor are they programmers... They are both.

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amadiver
I liked the article, but little bits don't add up. I'd say it's an
entertaining read, but maybe not as solid on information as I'd expect for a
frontpage HN article.

~~~
petervandijck
I found it so badly written it hurts.

"There has to be solid knowledge of how it should be used properly (as opposed
to way most UI Engineers use it today), and how to create great user
experiences that use jQuery right and not just to use it." Sigh. That's not
just really badly written, it's almost almost 100% fluff.

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waratuman
usabilitycounts.com, your site is down. Seriously usability counts.

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usabilitycounts
I love creating a shit storm. :)

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omouse
lolwut, they aren't engineers. Maybe "engineers"

~~~
karanbhangui
I don't know why you're being downvoted, but an engineer is a legal
designation. Would you call Dr. Dre a doctor?

~~~
dgabriel
It seems to be a legal designation only in Israel:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering#Profession> . Feel free to
correct me if I'm wrong.

~~~
karanbhangui
That's sort of the point. Engineer is a term thrown around, from QA to UI
designers. While their positions are no less important to a company, calling
them engineers is just wrong.

Also, you can get a true 'engineering' degree in software in Ontario, Canada
(UWaterloo)

