[thelist] OT- I think...Developer vs Designer

Michael Barrett mbarrett at triad.rr.com
Mon Mar 5 13:25:20 CST 2001


> A designer to me is someone that has the ability to make a project ro
> website look "pretty" visual and design.
As a designer I take minor offense to the term "pretty" when discussing what
design does for a project ( web based or any other )

I freely admit that there are plenty of graphic designers out there who
focus too much on the artfulness of their graphics, sacrificing practicality
in the process. However, these aren't good designers.

A good designer must: ( IMHO, in no particular order )
- Understand the purpose and or goals of a project.
- Understand the needs and psychology of the client.
- Understand the needs and psychology of the audience, end user, or
customer.
- Understand, in a functional way, the technology used to accomplish the
goals of the project. (be it programming, scripting, and databases or
engineering and construction materials)
- Plan for the expected and unexpected behavior of the end user.
- Take these understandings and express them visually *and* functionally.
- Make these expressions clear, usable, practical, and widely legible.
- Design in such a way that makes the work of developers less difficult

"Pretty" doesn't address enough of the aspects of design to do it justice.
Although, there's nothing wrong with pretty.

So would argue that
Designer is to conceptual/organizational/aesthetic
As
Developer is to functional/technical/systematic

As always, the ravings of Michael Barrett do not necessarily express the
views of the design community at large.

-- Michael
-O^O-
 - 





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