Sometimes I like to rant a little about the separation between designers and developers. Some will say that a developer is anyone who can build a web page. Many say that a true developer can write a 2000 line SQL stored procedure in his sleep. Obviously if this was true, anyone less in skill would just be called a Web Editor or something like that. I am not sure what is the right title, I do not really care, all I know is that there is a major rift between programmers and designers – which there should be to a certain degree.
Many of my issues come with territory. Is it a designer’s territory to learn about front end development such as CSS and web page layout, absolutely! In my opinion, there are two types of web designers out there, designers that can develop and designers that are clueless about web technology. From what I understand in many design schools, web technology is not being stressed enough such as PHO, CSS, MySQL, and web server administration. These tools are essential to the web designer! These are the things that a web designer needs to know and continually practice so that he or she can build or know how to design a web page. In many cases there is no design thought of dynamism in Web Pages other than flashy animation and style by the designer. Do we ever think about how text might change to break a layout? D0 we ever think about how a search field should look? Sometimes, but most of the time we just make it “pretty” and go from there.
What do I recommend for up and coming designers? Technolgy will always change so knowing what is hot is good, however the ability to design and creativity will never change, you either have it or you don’t it is not something that can just be learned through a book. Aesthetics are what they are, however the ability to truly combine technolgy and design is not just a skill but a talent.
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