5 ms·

I like designers who are also implementers.

by courtf 6y ago

xwdv 6y ago
I do not like designers.
- nitrogen 6y ago
  I've worked with a few really good designers. They can add a lot to a product when designers, PMs, and engineers are all equal stakeholders who can contribute ideas and point out shortcomings. E.g. a good designer can take complex functionality and create the optimal interaction pattern for that functionality, and make it look and feel good to use, without sacrificing functionality.
- hazz99 6y ago
  Design as a field goes far, far beyond creating logos, interfaces and pretty pictures. Design-inspired strategy has made it's way into the US military, government, and many corporations. That statement is deep in Dunning-Kruger territory.
rarecoil 6y ago
Agree. I feel like the division in which designers only work in Figma/Sketch/etc. without actually being able to implement those things in HTML and CSS leads to designs that are often impractical for the platform. Shouldn't the person responsible for drawing the user experience have an understanding as to what is actually capable on the platform that they are designing for?
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  Funny story. The largest bank in Canada had a designer create the new logo/menu (called the "key") for the website, but it was around 200k at the time, so was impractical on a dial-up modem. One of the senior eng. managers re-implemented it, and got it down to about 30k, which got the page to load in under 7 seconds (the performance standard before high-speed home Internet.) Everybody was impressed, saying, "Wow, serious technical cred for a manager!" :)
- whywhywhywhy 6y ago
  Even if you do fully understand the platform you'll still find yourself having to argue with engineers who claim things are "impossible", any talent capable of producing high quality, performant UI with great UX front end work is extremely rare. Struggling to find engineers who can even create a button and link that function correctly these days on pages with 5-10 second load times.
eyelidlessness 6y ago
I started my career doing frontend work but pretty quickly moved full stack, then gradually backend took over for me completely. I’m relatively rusty on FE, have only worked on one website in the last 4-5 years. Now I’m building out a personal site and I decided to just skip the design app and go straight to the browser. It’s a breath of fresh air. I could always make my way with Photoshop or Illustrator or Sketch, but it never quite translated the way I’d hope. I’d end up making disappointing concessions that were in the original design but just couldn’t work in the browser. No more! I start and end with what the browser is capable of, and I know instantly how the end result is going to square up to my expectations. I don’t know what the current design app state of the art can offer, but I don’t really feel the need to find out. Of course, if I find myself working with designers again I won’t necessarily have that luxury. But it’s a much nicer environment for my personal work than anything I’ve tried.

I like designers who are also implementers.

by courtf 6y ago

I like designers who are also implementers.

xwdv 6y ago

I do not like designers.

nitrogen 6y ago
I've worked with a few really good designers. They can add a lot to a product when designers, PMs, and engineers are all equal stakeholders who can contribute ideas and point out shortcomings. E.g. a good designer can take complex functionality and create the optimal interaction pattern for that functionality, and make it look and feel good to use, without sacrificing functionality.
hazz99 6y ago
Design as a field goes far, far beyond creating logos, interfaces and pretty pictures. Design-inspired strategy has made it's way into the US military, government, and many corporations. That statement is deep in Dunning-Kruger territory.

rarecoil 6y ago

Agree. I feel like the division in which designers only work in Figma/Sketch/etc. without actually being able to implement those things in HTML and CSS leads to designs that are often impractical for the platform. Shouldn't the person responsible for drawing the user experience have an understanding as to what is actually capable on the platform that they are designing for?

redis_mlc 6y ago
Funny story. The largest bank in Canada had a designer create the new logo/menu (called the "key") for the website, but it was around 200k at the time, so was impractical on a dial-up modem. One of the senior eng. managers re-implemented it, and got it down to about 30k, which got the page to load in under 7 seconds (the performance standard before high-speed home Internet.) Everybody was impressed, saying, "Wow, serious technical cred for a manager!" :)
whywhywhywhy 6y ago
Even if you do fully understand the platform you'll still find yourself having to argue with engineers who claim things are "impossible", any talent capable of producing high quality, performant UI with great UX front end work is extremely rare. Struggling to find engineers who can even create a button and link that function correctly these days on pages with 5-10 second load times.

eyelidlessness 6y ago

I started my career doing frontend work but pretty quickly moved full stack, then gradually backend took over for me completely. I’m relatively rusty on FE, have only worked on one website in the last 4-5 years. Now I’m building out a personal site and I decided to just skip the design app and go straight to the browser. It’s a breath of fresh air. I could always make my way with Photoshop or Illustrator or Sketch, but it never quite translated the way I’d hope. I’d end up making disappointing concessions that were in the original design but just couldn’t work in the browser. No more! I start and end with what the browser is capable of, and I know instantly how the end result is going to square up to my expectations. I don’t know what the current design app state of the art can offer, but I don’t really feel the need to find out. Of course, if I find myself working with designers again I won’t necessarily have that luxury. But it’s a much nicer environment for my personal work than anything I’ve tried.