[thelist] philosophising (designers and propeller-heads)

[Cory Preus]

I'm a computer science major (coder to the core) with a design minor
(designer at heart). I have some crossover knowledge (albeit I'm partial to
the coding line). I wholeheartedly agree with your statement that each side
should develop an understanding towards each faction. 

Besides haveing the collaborative processs, one idea that I've heard and
would find to be a fascinating experience is to have each other as
"apprentices." Staff would spend an hour a week with coworkers learning the
trade. I see this as good way of achieving a modern day Renaissance Man. How
well it works in practice, I'm not sure. I'd be very interested though to
learn marketing strategies (possibly for starting my own web firm),
accounting practices (being able to read the quarterly results without
glazing over) and the opportunity to hone my design skills with
professionals.

-Cory

-----Original Message-----
From: A. Erickson [mailto:amanda at gawow.com]
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 9:14 AM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: RE: [thelist] philosophising (designers and propeller-heads)


I think that there needs to be delineations between coder and designer.
However, there needs to be crossover knowledge there. The coder should do
his/her damndest to try and learn some principles of useability and
interface design and the designer should know how to build, at least in a
rudimentary fashion, a site and be versed in technology.

Companies seem to fall heavily on one side or the other. Either the
designers* are also doing the coding (or the coders* are doing the
designing) or you seem to have a complete separation where the designers
know shit-all about coding (and may come from a print world which I won't
get into right now) or the coders just end up as head-down monkeys who
produce a site and may have nothing invested in it.

In the end, it needs to be a collaborative process but you should also let
people do what they do best and what they have a passion for. In the ideal
world....

- amanda


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