For a time I was rather concerned about the semantics of the terms; who does what? Which one makes more money and what the heck do I call myself?
There is the school of thought where a web designer is the person who makes web sites and a web developer is one who does… other stuff… makes the forms go, puts your name on the pages. The web designer was the cool one, he/she knows “Flash” ooOOOoo. The developer was the other guy, down the hall, no one really knows what he does anyways so who cares. Today, neither of them have jobs unless they each learned some of what the other one did.
The public is evolving and people want beautiful sites that have database connectivity, use AJAX techniques, consume web services and comply to W3C XHTML, CSS and accessibility standards and washes your car on Tuesdays.
There are the big design companies. Some actually are big companies that command top dollar to cover the overhead. Some are just a dude in his kitchen who copied a big companies site, this facade usually doesn’t last past the first phone call but if the guy is good/lucky he can still get the gig. There are the do-it-yourselfers, like me, who prefer to work alone or in small groups. Social deviates, control freaks, or people who got fired and just couldn’t bare job hunting. No overhead to consider so prices can be kept down though clout is a little harder to muster.
Whatever your situation, technological evolution keeps competition heated as more and more tools tools available to the general public by way of user-friendly applications, the AllInOneDoesEverythingForAnyone software packages like WordPress, Joomla and DotNetNuke. And there are the Monster Templates. You really need a little know-how to get the most out of these packages however their claim to fame is “anyone” can do it and in most cases they are right on. So, like Syndrome said in the movie The Incredibles, “…and if everyone is a web designer, then no one is” er no, wait, it was “if everyone makes super websites, then no one is a designer” no, it’s super, “if everyone is hungry, then it’s supper time at aunt Fannies”, NO, crap, never mind.
The problem for me with web development is that as soon as you think you have a handle on a particular technology you discover a whole other avenue of functionality that you didn’t know about, or, the technology changes, or something way better comes along and… BAZAAM, you’re a newbie again.
In contrast, the rules of design, of leading the eye/attention to the desired end point, or of evoking some other type of response via color and shape, remain the same even on a website however, theres a catch; there are those who fancy themselves designers when it is clear they are not however they do not realize it because they just can’t tell. Like the tone-deaf person who sings really loud, they just don’t know they sound bad because they’re tone deaf. Am I one of them? How would I know?
I think to be able to call yourself a web developer you need to be able to make a standards compliant, browser compatible (except IE5-), no tables, web page out of any PSD, AI, TIFF, EPS, PDF, JPG and even a crappy GIF if need be. You need to be able to find phpMyAdmin on a server and make a database. You should also be able to create a webpage that uses the database as well as a page where you can add/edit/delete records. You should be able to make contact forms and such too. I don’t mean downloading WordPress or Joomla or even the drag and drop ease of MS Visual Web Developer, you’ve got to get dirty, fuck some shit up, in both environments, UNIX and Windows. And there’s the client side stuff, image manipulation, form validation, preloads, etc… JavaScript is pretty darn powerful these days. Anyways, these are the basics I think. Sessions and memberships, XMLHttpRequest (ajax), OOP, these all get into more intermediate areas so as long as you’ve at least heard of these you’re OK, you can call yourself a developer in my book.
Design is a different story all together. After years of starring at websites for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, you kind of get a feel for the difference between a site that was designed by a “designer” and a site that… wasn’t. The designers I respect the most are those with illustration skills. Growing up my best friend in grade school was one of “those” guys. We had a class project in 2nd grade, draw a bridge, mine was the usual, barely legible scrawling of an 8 year old. Ten minutes into the project most kids were done, already bored, making odd noises and dropping things however, there was a small crowd around my friend’s desk. I went over to see what all the hub-bub was about and was delighted to see an amazing drawing of a typical Pennsylvania old-style covered bridge. Perspective, shading, details and things we had never seen come out of a live person before. I don’t consider myself a designer. I never went to design school or had outstanding natural talent BUT, I can definitely recognize great design when I see it.
The most successful sites in my opinion are those with very LITTLE design, everything has a purpose and supports everything else, especially the user. When this is achieved the user tends to “not notice” the design as they are “wrapped up”, browsing, absorbing the message… BUY NOW! or SIGN UP! or CLICK HERE TO ESCAPE THE DEATH-LIKE GRIP OF THE RECTAL-CRANIAL INVERSION.
Back in the day all I had to do was make a site that looked cool, that had a bell or a whistle, and finish it as fast as humanly possible, yesterday. Now it’s all about ROI… and finishing it as fast as humanly possible, yesterday. The crash of 2000 weeded out all the internet businesses that didn’t produce ROI. So now, in order to be an actual internet business you have to make money. This is very hard to do. The internet is saturated and unless you’ve secured your niche you will only spend money on the internet. Therefore as a web designer/developer you have to be aware of every aspect of conceiving, creating, promoting and maintaining a web site.
In a nut shell, the design needs to serve the purpose and the functionality should serve the design. At the same time the content, the words, have to be arranged so that search engines will pick them up and understand what the site is about and who you want to visit so that it can in turn serve your site to the appropriate searchers.
Who’s designing your site?
