

Programming is Product Design - mildweed
http://wademeredith.com/2011/09/programming-is-product-design/

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meiji
Can't decide if the writer is trolling for traffic or not. It's clear SOME
programmers should take an interest given the number of awful GUIs we see on
desktop, web and mobile apps but not all "programmers" need to have anything
to do with an interface so, as yinrunning said, training to understand design
would just dilute their ability to learn what they need to know.

As a professional developer I enjoyed the front-end stuff for a while but
quickly learned I preferred providing a framework for the more visual people
and get on with the back-end stuff which I guess Wade considers maths.

So, as a question to anyone; what do we think about designers who have no
ability to code or, even worse, ability to design with sympathy for the
technology they're using?

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wccrawford
"A pro­gram­mer who does not design and illus­trate is not pro­gram­ming for
humans, but prac­tic­ing at mathematics."

And it is -AWESOME-.

I've always envied people who can draw and design. It simply isn't one of my
talents and I quit apologizing for it a while back. Instead, ask me to program
your back end... It'll be amazing. Or even ask me to work with your designer.
We'll all be happy.

But don't expect me to also do design for the same price as specializing in
programming. The people who can do that are 'rock stars' and get paid as such.

If you think otherwise, what you've been hiring are designers who can do some
coding... Just enough coding to get by. It's not visible to you because you're
not looking at the code.

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kp8383
I think both designers and coders (and designer/coders) need to focus
primarily on building an optimal environment for efficient and enjoyable HCI.
Each skillset has its merits, and I don't necessarily think you have to have a
hand in both in order to be successful. But in any capacity, you have to keep
your mind on building an optimal product. So yes, programming is product
design, as graphic design is product design. They go hand-in-hand toward
building and designing something that people will love and find useful.

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yinrunning
Yeah, I'd have to disagree, to a certain extent. I think that to say that
serving the end user completely as a programmer is a great thing. But to say
that A) Coding is "just math" is completely incorrect. Coding is working with
a language. A real programmer is a Creative individual, not necessarily an
Analytical individual. It takes analytical skills and talent to realize what
you need to program. But a good line of code is an elegant, poetic,
wholeheartedly joyous expression of logic, efficiency, and your own Voice as a
speaker of programming language. B) To ask that developers have the same
skillsets as designers / graphic artists / branding specialists / etc. etc. is
just really... Unreasonable. A basic conceptual understanding, sure. But I'll
NEVER know what someone with a BFA degree knows. Not even a thumble's worth.
And that's as it should be.

At the end of the day, trying to be "good" at both disciplines is going to
leave you severely lacking in either one area or the other. And that's why I
mock job postings that read along the lines of "We want you to know everything
from doing print catalogs to how to performance tweak a database". Those are
_at_least_ two different people.

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movingahead
I think this post is undermining the importance of both design and
development. Design is not for people who are not interested in it. Surely,
developers appreciate the importance of good design, but to expect developers
to design it themselves is wrong. Will you ask someone who works at AMG
tweaking Mercedes-Benz engines to learn how to design the next Merc ?

