RE: FN-FORUM: Creating a Web Developer organisation

date posted 13th August 2007 12:35

Craig wrote:
> By "Developers" do you mean "non-designers", i.e. people that only do
> the back end coding. I've long held the opinion that people should
> do at least a bit of both, if they don't they're either computer
> programmers or graphic designers, not "Web" developers, which is a
> discipline that covers more than just code crunching. It's why we
> get clever sites that don't validate and have poor usability at one
> end and gorgeous, but useless Flash sites at the other. =20

Not sure I agree, though it does depend how you define design and what =
you
mean by "back end coding".

As a programmer who has specialised in web-based development for 7+ =
years my
skill set is completely different than had I remained for example a =
windows
programmer. Knowledge of the web model, web-specific issues, HTML,
javascript, browser quirks, hosting setups etc. makes me very much a =
"web
developer" even though I have no graphic design skills to speak of.

There is also a whole broad area of usability and UI design that spans =
the
middle of the two - I have no graphic design skills but it does not mean =
I
don't have any input into design in the usability sense.

In some development environments it may be the case that back end code =
is
truly separate from front end usability etc. e.g. if you were writing a =
web
service and had no knowledge or interest in what might be done with the
service outputs, but I have not worked in those environments.

To try to summarise I agree that a programmer who sits in a box in =
complete
isolation from the user of the system might not warrant the term web
developer but that is not my experience as a programmer working in this
industry. Furthermore I disagree that the technical and presentational
aspects of web site building should be combined in one person - I think =
it
is very rare for an individual to have the skills to be good at both =
areas
at once.

In my experience it is the desire to roll these two areas into one that
devalues the skills on both sides of the equation - the number of "web
developer" roles I have seen advertised which focus on design skills =
(well,
let's be honest design tools skills) yet assume that the candidate will =
be
able to knock-out back-end code as well, all for =A315/hr is depressing.

A good website needs _at_least_ three roles to my mind, a technical =
person,
a visual person and a content person. You might get high quality in all
three areas from two people if you are lucky, but I believe it would be
extremely rare to get high quality in all three areas from one person =
and
you are probably best off getting three specialists provided you have
effective project management to ensure they all work effectively =
together.