
Fire the “web designer” - pw
http://briancray.com/2009/09/09/fire-the-web-designer/?utm_source=subscriber&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss
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oneplusone
_Web teams still need graphic designers to communicate visually appealing
messages. And graphic designers moving from a print team to a web team should
stay graphic designers._

What a load of crap. Graphic design is to print what web design is to the web.
You cannot take a print designer and expect him to design websites. It is two
_completely_ different fields.

Design has specialties, and it just so happens that the term graphic designer
has evolved into describing designers that are good at working with the
physical print medium. On the other hand the term web designer described
people that are good at working with interactive display-based design.

Web designers, because they are working in an interactive medium, is expected
to know UX design theory. It is part of the job. It is one of the many things
that sets them apart from print designers. If they can't handle it perhaps
they are just a crappy designer?

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aarongough
I hear what you're saying about the UX part... I think that this can be solved
if the developer has knowledge in this area and can consult with the designer
during the design process.

This is the process at the company I work for and it works quite well. For
more complex projects that have a lot of interaction the designer comes up
with a look and feel and a color palette and then the developer requests
additional graphic elements as he feels they are necessary...

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markkanof
That of course requires that the developer have UX knowledge/experience which
many developers don't. I think ideally all persons involved with the creation
of a user interface would have both UX knowledge and interest in creating a
usable interface.

The design process should be more fluid instead of just laying out a UI and
then having the designer make it look pretty.

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antidaily
I think for small teams especially - if you've got a guy/girl who can't code
CSS, HTML and some light JS - you hired the wrong person.

~~~
sghael
Couldn't agree more. If you application is heavily dependent on UI (like most
any webapp), then you massively benefit from having one person that's able to
do it all. It's a competitive advantage you can't live without.

There is just too much overhead, otherwise, in splitting and managing duties
among 2 or 3 people. When I hire developers for my webapp consulting firm,
they need to be badass programmers that can own every layer of the stack AND
they need to be comfortable slicing PSDs themselves.

IMO, this should apply to Marketing and Biz Dev as well. It's super annoying
when the "marketing guy/girl" can't render their own message on the corporate
website and has to pass that task on to a developer. Marketing people need to
know HTML/CSS at minimum. Otherwise, you just have an "idea guy" with a major
handicap in executing on the web.

(btw, this being written by someone who's worked in both a marketing and a
tech role)

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byrneseyeview
Alternative title: "Change the title you your web designer's business card."
This is all stuff that the web designer is supposed to do.

~~~
Semiapies
And don't give that card to someone who's just a graphics designer.

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planettrash
The term 'web designer' means different things to different people.

Expanding the term web to website - creates: 'website designer'. And it reads
as someone that can design websites. It doesn't even imply that they can
create or implement them!

I think of the expression in more holistic terms. But I don't know many
individuals who are experts at all the parts. Finding a team of people with a
blend of skills that complement each other, is the holy grail in my opinion.

Two print designers, come web designers I have worked with have both been
excellent contributers to web projects. One heavily focuses on the look and
feel, html and css. The other is gifted in the looks department and is a
competent programmer. It took them both a while for them to get the hang of a
new medium, but they love it. It does take a while for print designers to
understand the elasticity of a web page, some find it hard to relinquish pixel
perfection.

I can realise a site design from paper based mockups, bitmaps and vectors. I'd
struggle to create a visual design myself but can work with an artist that
understands 'web design' principles.

While it may be a nice idea to create 'out of the box' designs, you are still
bound to your medium. Understanding that medium's strengths, weaknesses and
conventions is very important.

So I'd like to emphasise the point again, that a mult-disiplined team can all
contribute something good to a site. That's certainly my experience anyway.
Someone without a clue about html or css, may still be the perfect person to
organise and map content.

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pedalpete
How many 'web designers' are actually print designers who have converted to
web, and haven't grown with the web?

I think this should be a non-issue these days. If a designer has been working
consistently for the past 15 years, I suspect they would have transitioned
from print designer to a web designer. Either that, or if they are newer to
the field, wouldn't they have learned web design.

UX is a completely different animal, though I see many designers who like to
get involved and understand UX because it has a huge effect on what and how
they design.

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mortenjorck
Unfortunately, I still see it happening. People whose experience in print
vastly outweighs their web experience often tend to design for the web with
only a superficial understanding of it. They don't understand the way browsers
render things; they don't quite understand how people view things on a screen.

A good "web designer" has the same understanding of CSS and screen viewing as
a good print designer understands paper weights and ink coverage.

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rwhitman
"User Experience" is becoming such a buzzword.

I remember back when the "UX" guy was a freaking human-computer interaction
psychologist who did lab testing...

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dmix
You have to stay trendy, the new title is: User Interface Engineer.

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markkoberlein
I do agree that many times companies try to force their "print" designers into
the role of web designers because it's usually cheaper than hiring another
designer for the web. Most of the time this causes the project to fail. Either
because the designer's work isn't usable online or they don't understand HTML
and CSS so they can't implement it themselves and will then hand their work
off to a programmer who doesn't know Photoshop.

It all depends on how motivated the "print" designer is in becoming a "web"
designer. If it's their choice, they can be successful. "Usability,
information architecture (IA), and user interface (UI) design" can be learned
as long as the web designer knows that this is a whole different ballgame than
the print world.

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josefresco
Good luck telling (and selling) your average small business owner they need to
hire (or consider a firm that has) a graphic designer AND a user experience
designer when building a new website.

Maybe on the corporate level where money is wasted and meetings are plentiful.
But down here in the real world (trenches) it's unnessary if the "web
designer" in question knows his/her shit.

All this guy is doing is splitting an existing profession into two sub-
professions. You can do that with almost any job.

Example: Fire the painter! What you really need is a guy who paints and
another guy who tells him where and what to paint (a paint experience
designer?)

~~~
joevandyk
I don't think a lot of people have experience with graphic design, user
experience design, and html/css skills.

I know a lot of tech and design people, and I know exactly one person who is
good at all three things.

And yes, as mentioned above, how many people have their house built by their
interior decorator?

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frederickcook
I'm not sure the idea of a "User Interface Designer" instead of a web designer
will not fix a startup. Folks like Steve Blank and Eric Reis have been saying
for a while that (for a web app) user experience is where a lot of startups
fail. Eric Reis talked about having customers come in to their office and sit
next to their engineers and talk through user experience. Steve Blank talks
about "getting out of the office" and talking to your customers.

The answer to better user interfaces isn't having another "expert" in the
office with a fancy title. It is making everyone in your company into a "user
interface expert" by bringing in the real expert, the user.

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bkbleikamp
The term "Product Designer" is one that suits the web well.

In my opinion a product designer should be able to create visually appealing
designs that are usable. They should have an understanding of user experience
and HCI issues - but not necessarily be an expert or have a PhD in the fields.
They should be able to prototype their designs in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
and do some minor back end coding to get things working (they don't
necessarily have to do this all the time, but they should have the ability to
do so).

FWIW, this is what Facebook's product design team does (from my understanding
of it, anyway)

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oldgregg
The reality is that most people don't even know what a UX designer is-- so
they get the designer, programmer, and biz guy in a room and mangle their way
through it. The real problem is that there are not enough UX designers out
there. UX is inherently multi-disciplinary. You have to have understand how
business objectives interact with design interact with code. Our education
system doesn't teach people to think holistically so most UX designers just
stumbled into it on their own. Some come from the design side, others come
from web-dev, but you can't fault them for trying.

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Tichy
"Neither should do the others’ job."

Why not, maybe some people are good at both things? Also I would have expected
good graphics design to also be about good user experience.

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tbgvi
While I think this is correct, I'm not sure how practical it is.

For example, with my startup I'm trying to be as cost conscious as possible.
Sure it would be nice to have one person in charge of UX and one person doing
the graphics (people who are great at graphic design aren't _always_ great
with usability).

The problem is that adds money and time. Instead I hired someone who is good
at UX, graphic design, AND can implement their design with CSS etc..

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Cheeese
This is nonsense. Everyone building product should have some degree of
understanding of UX. And its absolutely crucial that the designer understands
all the complexities of UX. Great design is required to take this into
account, as a designer there is no way you can ever separate the two.

There are many average designers who do not understand interaction design, but
there are zero amazing web designers who dont care about UX.

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ShabbyDoo
It's notable that every degreed UX person I've worked with has been incredibly
good. By degreed, I mean a MS in HCI or similar, not "I got a MIS degree and
couldn't write code." The percentage of people with respectable CS degrees who
are good coders is much lower in comparison. I guess HCI isn't an obvious life
choice, so those willing to invest in graduate school programs are pretty
passionate about it.

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aarongough
I absolutely agree with this. The company I work for was forced to take this
approach as our designers were unable to come to grips with coding, in the end
it worked out to be a great thing!

One additional benefit is that if the graphic designer has less of an idea of
the restrictions on design that web-design impose then they are more likely to
think outside the box and come up with creative designs...

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acg
This is nonsense, what people choose to call themselves changes all the time.
When hiring you ought to look at people's qualifications and experience, not
what they choose to call the job they do. This is trying to put labels onto
the complex job of finding the right people.

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didip
The author might be a specialist type, which is cool. But who's to say that
the 2 jobs cannot be done by 1 person?

This blog post sounds like: "Hire a software architect that can build
Interfaces for programmers to implement."

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efsavage
Someone who is a "User experience designer" is simply someone who can't code
or draw. That's the person you should be firing. Everyone on your team should
understand "user experience".

~~~
amadiver
UX is complex enough, and important enough, to be its own discipline. I've
been a developer for eight years, and guys doing UX/IA have improved the
quality of the sites I've worked on tremendously.

~~~
sabat
It's its own discipline, but it has to be melded with the job of graphic
designer and browser coder to be effective.

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Goosey
How do they do that 'progress bar' on the links I open in new tabs? That
effect really impressed me.

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83457
Just a guess but it is probably just eye candy that starts on click and ends
on blur.

