Before the web programmers often did designer because the whole idea of designers wasn't really so clear cut. Back in the 80's I never met anyone who just desig

Before the web programmers often did designer because the whole idea of designers wasn't really so clear cut. Back in the 80's I never met anyone who just designed UI, they were also the developers of the UI as well (I did this for 10 years). Once the web appeared and UIs became more important to marketing, designers with art backgrounds took over. Eventually other specialties appeared to consider the UX, usability etc, which was not art. But in the beginning its was mostly programmers all the way down.