[thelist] Are Web designers a dying breed?

[Martin]

David Nicholls wrote on 27/7/00 3:34 am

>> We need designers/artists/whatever to push limits just as we need
>> usability experts to test and draw them.

>
>I wonder an additional perspective on the Nielsen debate might be
>through an analogy - the movie industry.

But the movie industry essentially does one thing: entertainment
(and a bit of art too). The online industry is much more
heterogenous

>The movie industry is a little over 100 years old and is as mature as
>any combination of art and technology gets to be - though still
>evolving, in its mainstream aspects, it's not changing as dramatically
>quickly as it did in its early days.  With the Web, we are still in the
>era of dramatic change.
True, although it is getting towards basic maturity, about where films
were in 1970 (ie up to the era of CGI).

>The movie that wins the
>best special effects Oscar isn't necessarily the one that wins the award
>for the best script or best movie. 
This is a good argument when comparing script/effects. But where effects
are used gratuitously, to the detriment of plot, acting etc, the movie as
a whole suffers. And if having the rumble seats & widescreen means that
you don't actually have a movie which communicates something, then
what's the point? The effects have to be there for a reason.

Cheers
Martin