Fire the “web designer”

http://briancray.com/2009/09/09/fire-the-web-designer/?utm_source=subscriber&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

by pw • 16 years ago

40 33 16 years ago

tbgvi• 16 years ago

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..

oneplusone• 16 years ago

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?

aarongough2• 16 years ago

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...

markkanof• 16 years ago

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.

Semiapies2• 16 years ago

I think this is part of the writer's point. The role of the graphics designer is not the role of the "web designer", but the term has been construed as such and might better be abandoned in favor of "user experience designer".

I'm not sure I agree, but the importance of the graphics design/web design distinction is important.

aarongough2• 16 years ago

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...

markkoberlein• 16 years ago

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.

byrneseyeview• 16 years ago

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

Semiapies2• 16 years ago

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

Goosey• 16 years ago

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

83457• 16 years ago

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

pedalpete• 16 years ago

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.

mortenjorck• 16 years ago

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.

markmywords• 16 years ago

Unfortunately it is 2010 and I still see many "print folder websites" being made with fixed aspect ratios and even the dreaded flash intros experience a second wind here lately. And designers with experience/focus on web application design are very rare. Always looking for them ;)

ShabbyDoo• 16 years ago

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.

oldgregg• 16 years ago

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.

acg• 16 years ago

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.

frederickcook• 16 years ago

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.

antidaily• 16 years ago

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• 16 years ago

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)

efsavage• 16 years ago

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• 16 years ago

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• 16 years ago

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

planettrash• 16 years ago

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.

Tichy• 16 years ago

"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.

josefresco• 16 years ago

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?)

locopati• 16 years ago

re: your example - interior designer is the term you're looking for :)

joevandyk• 16 years ago

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?

rwhitman• 16 years ago

"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...

dmix• 16 years ago

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

bkbleikamp• 16 years ago

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)

didip• 16 years ago

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."

Cheeese• 16 years ago

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.

Fire the “web designer”

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