[thelist] Designer vs. Coder

[Fortune Elkins]

hiya e!

>And I asked the gods, what am I, gods? a designer or a coder?

well, i just call myself a web evangelist, because i do the html, the
graphics, the layout in FW or FreeHand, the asp in UD, the Flash, and the
XML in flash. i will also offer the few basic rules on architecture,
usability, compatibility, and interaction design that most people actually
care about. oh, i can discuss IIS too. overall, i try to offer my employer
web ideas and web solutions when they make sense and are feasible
technically. my advice: try to stay on top of the food chain and don't let
"them" waste your time matching pantone to hex colors.<grin> (love you all,
my dear graphic designer friends! please don't hurt me! <Grin>) web pages
are software, not translations of print or tv! try to establish a good
engineering process! <sigh>

my site has some dancing text and a little "magnetic poetry" thing in flash
as well, with classical music. 

this made me in the eyes of the many, a "flash developer," because i am
capable of some scripting in flash. further, since i can encode video (duh!
use media cleaner and premiere!) they thought i might be a production
artist! but since i don't have a BFA from an art school or a wacom tablet, i
can't be a "designer." <giggle>

these kinds of categories may make sense at a large web development or new
media house, but most small to medium size employers only have two or three
people, one of whom is usually a "real" programmer in perl or python or
such. it just shows how little most employment agencies/recruiters really
understand web work. 

so for the most part designer (of html) vs. coder (of html) is a false
distinction. the real line comes between coder of html and coder of say, XML
or php.<Grin> (until macromedia comes along with a product for those too!
<Grin>)

>And then they said "we need more Flash."

i hear ya! and although as a "flash developer," i think the planet should
balance its checkbooks and do its laundry in flash, there are times <gasp>
when it's inappropriate and when less is most definitely more!<Grin> otoh,
we're also testing flash as a front end for our web-enabled, real-time, XML
product with servlets -- gives us great compatibility, good functionality,
separation of front, middle, back, etc., looks great, small download, all
that jazz. we're also testing encoding .avi straight to .swf to send out as
rich media email to leverage the ubiquity of the flash player. 

have fun,

f

-----Original Message-----
From: Erika Meyer [mailto:meyer at up.edu]
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2001 3:42 PM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: Re: [thelist] Designer vs. Coder


And I asked the gods, what am I, gods? a designer or a coder?

I thought I was a designer until I started looking for work.  They 
saw me and thought:  hmmm... she makes these web pages that have:

1. no fancy flash movies
2. no slicey rollovers nor cool bandwidth-sucking tricky images
3. text links where she could be using graphics
4. plain flat images, tweaked clip art, simple interfaces
5. layouts that change size, that look different in different 
browsers... CSS instead of graphics

the conclusion?  I am a coder.

Not my conclusion, the conclusion of staffing agencies and employers.

So I thought, okay, I like to hand code, I can swing with it.  I like 
building front-ends...

So the 'designers' designed and then they told me how to code, and 
I'd be saying, "what??? are you nuts??? and I'd point out various 
problems, usually usability problems that were a result of 
superficial thinking which in turn was the result of thinking about 
the layout without spending enough time understanding audience needs 
and figuring out how to meet them.

But understanding audience needs was not my job; coding was.  They 
said, "shut up and code."

And then they said "we need more Flash."

***

Sorry, I don't have an answer for you.  But I have one for me.  I'm a 
front-end designer. And being a front-end designer, I'm also an 
information designer.  I am a web-site designer.

I am not a graphic designer.
I work first with information, client goals, audience needs.
Back end, navigation, layout, and graphics all spring from those needs.

I would like to build sites with a graphic and/or multimedia designer 
and with a database designer.

But I think web front-end design can be seen as its own discipline,
of which graphic design is a component.

I think that web interface designers MUST work toward an intimate 
knowledge of markup and CSS.  We must also understand the meaning of 
"separating presentation and content."

But right now, it seems that in mainstream web design, presentation 
is everything.

the nice thing about the web is that it changes so quickly...

Erika


>With all of this talk about using wysiwyg's and coding by hand..  I
>propose the question I've been struggling with...  Can someone be very
>good at both?  Designers I think will tend to drift towards dreamweaver..
>it's faster, its easier, and they can see the designs.. pretty.. *poof*
>there it is.  Coders are interested in back-end...  how it loads, how it's
>handled on different systems/browsers/etc, getting the most done in
>least amount of lines of correct code...
>
>If we seperate content and design, are we also seperating the jobs?
>
>*shrug*
>
>just pondering,
>jeana
>

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