

Why The Valley Wants Designers That Can Code - robin_reala
http://konigi.com/notebook/why-valley-wants-designers-can-code

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wccrawford
It's all about cost versus benefit.

Of course every startup wants designers who can code. And architect. And grill
a perfect panini. And work for minimum wage. And, and, and.

The list of wants is miles long.

But finding someone with the exact specialties you want, for the price you can
pay, is hard.

Finding someone with a single specialty for your price is a lot easier.
Especially if they are relatively inexperienced so far.

If you find a jack-of-all-trades willing to work cheap, of course you should
take them. But don't start thinking you -need- that. Work with what you can
get.

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peng
Along with perfect visual and coding skills, "The Valley" wants designers in-
house and under control. If companies want to hire talent, they need to be
more willing to hire remotely. What's holding them back is the irrational fear
of losing control. "How can I make sure he's working a full eight hours a
day?" "What if he drops off the face the earth?"

Interface design can be done from anywhere on the globe. It's silly to
restrict your hires only to locals or those desperate enough to relocate.

The anachronism that is <http://hoveringartdirectors.tumblr.com> offers a
glimpse at the absurdity (and unintentional hilarity) of working in-house. How
is hovering more efficient than viewing the design on your own monitor? Which
is a more realistic use-case of your application? Actually using the app
yourself, or standing by someone and having them show you?

~~~
dasil003
> _Along with perfect visual and coding skills, "The Valley" wants designers
> in-house and under control. If companies want to hire talent, they need to
> be more willing to hire remotely._

This is a brash condemnation. In my experience startups are just as willing to
hire remote as any other business, with the possible exception of those who
have no local talent at all.

> _Interface design can be done from anywhere on the globe. It's silly to
> restrict your hires only to locals or those desperate enough to relocate._

For the past 3 years, I've worked for possibly the most distributed startup in
history. At one point I think we were averaging something like 1.8 people per
country, with the largest time zone gap being 8 hours between Sydney and Palo
Alto. I've telecommuted for several other jobs and a ton of contract work as
well.

I know how to be effective remotely, and certainly running a startup this way
gives you a hiring advantage, but it's not without significant downsides. The
idea that it's about hovering or butts-in-seats is a strawman to the extreme;
that type of attitude is a sign of failing before you started anyway.

The reason to all be together is that the collaboration is better. You will
share ideas better, iterate faster, experience less friction in communication,
and feed directly off the communal energy. You can take steps to narrow the
gap with technology, but even a full-time video conference link is not the
same as physical presence. I don't blame any founder for keeping everyone in
one place.

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kemayo
From a web development perspective... I like designers who can code because
they're going to know how difficult it is to make the thing they design.
They'll also likely know what the tradeoffs that can be made for support in
different browsers are.

Designers who can't code can still understand all these things, of course. But
in my experience they're less likely to.

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posabsolute
Well, 37signals talked about that some years ago.. I am a front-end developer
with some UI skills but no design skill at all so I maybe a bit flawed but..

It all comes down to what you are looking for, I never saw a designer as good
as a front-end developer doing html/css + js _in real life_ (of course there
are a couple of rockstars on the web).

They always have more a trial/error style than good code by design. Plus with
web apps going more and more front-end side, you need people that do great
html/css/js if you want a great working app.

~~~
TorbjornLunde
Some UI skills, but not design? I'm not sure if I understand here. If you are
making up UI, you are designing.

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rglover
As a designer, there is definitely a great benefit being able to take your
ideas and build them. What's more is that you have full control over your
ideas and how they're implemented. That being said, though, there's a lot of
back and forth. At one point your design may be top notch, but your code may
suffer and vice versa. It's just how it is. However in a startup environment,
the goal is quick and functional as opposed to being perfect. It really
depends on your priority, but knowing how to code as well as design is
extremely liberating.

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doorty
I keep hearing that companies are looking for these kind of hybrid
designers/developers, but I'm one of those people and struggle to find a job
that allows that freedom. In fact, I recently moved to SF thinking it would be
easier to find that kind of role at startups. I happen to be in the job market
right now, so shoot me a message if you need someone that can wear many hats.

~~~
flacon
You should post a link to portfolio/resume/github account to better market
yourself on this thread

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omouse
_one of the highest priorities, especially for bootstrapped startups, is to
ship while lean on resources._

In other words, exploit the human resource as much as possible while paying
them as little as possible? Makes sound business sense to me.

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flacon
"If you can't do some kind of code, at least learn HTML5, CSS and a little
Javascript, and maybe some other server-side scripting languages"

But take 5 years of solid work/practice with this to actually know what your
doing...

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thomasgerbe
Aside from myself, most of my friends are creatives and through that I have
found it EXTREMELY rare to find stellar designers who can also code just as
quickly and proficiently as front-end developers who have dedicated themselves
to the craft.

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carsongross
Another explanation that I derive from the last time I saw flashy UI take a
front seat in tech (1999-2002): we are in Yet Another Bubble, and Sizzle Sells
(overvalued companies to sucker VCs.)

_ducks_

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zinssmeister
I am a coder that can design. Maybe I should move to the valley

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wmeredith
This seems like a no-brainer to me. As the integration between back and front
end vision becomes tighter, the better the product will be.

