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The author is just pigeon-holing the abilities of people. I was/am pretty good at math AND art. Not everyone is a specialist that fits neatly into perfectly sha

The author is just pigeon-holing the abilities of people. I was/am pretty good at math AND art. Not everyone is a specialist that fits neatly into perfectly shaped holes. Designers who design for the web should know HTML, CSS, and Javascript pretty well. The best ones know them throughout. Design isn't art -- it's a technical profession and one that requires the designer to know their medium. If you do not then I would say you're taking the piss right out of it. Being the person who has to "code" a designers' work is a career built on frustration. The web wasn't built in photoshop. It was built by nerds and engineers. It has come a long way to allow people to make their HTML documents more expressive (to the point that they've become full application UI's...). But that doesn't escape the fact that this is a technical medium with specific technologies that drive those expressions. You have to know this stuff if you want to be good, IMO.

folletto 15y ago
Pigeon-holing? Quite the opposite. I'm making the difference between "should" and "could". That's exactly because not everyone is a specialist, neither I am, but at the same time not everyone is a generalist! :) Exactly like I'm saying in the middle of the article, "you have to know this stuff", but you don't have to know also how this stuff is done, you can, of course. But it's not a must. :) It's always sad for me to hear people with bad experiences with designers or developers, but really, I don't think that "code" is the answer. I believe that "teamwork" is the answer. Knowing. Discussing. Collaborating. I've never seen a team doing that failing, regardless of the mix of skills :)
- agentultra 15y ago
  It's the "Theory of Multiple Intelligences" bit that gave me the impression of pigeon-holing. And the paragraph preceding it where you go on about the typical high-school stereotypes. And the rest of the article is built on the premise of a dichotomy where creativity is separate from technical ability... the whole "left brain/right brain" idea. It's bunk! I think the split is actually in designer/front-end developer. If you want to make analogies to other industries, I think your concept of designer is more analogous to a "concept artist". The person who has the good ideas that are not restrained by the burden of having to think about how to build them. However when I hear, "web designer" -- I'm thinking of someone who can create or take a concept and actually build it. Someone who uses the tools available (HTML, CSS, Javascript, et al) to create something. This person does have to know how to build their ideas from the tools available. And I think for most projects the designer is also the concept artist. Very few (if any) web projects actually need those roles filled by two separate specialists. So I don't think it's bullshit. Designers should know how to code. And they should be good at it too.
  - folletto 15y ago
    Again, I agree. The whole article isn't built on that dichotomy. It's just a sequence from a simple perspective to a more complex perspective, and actually ends saying that it's better if you are willing to expand your view, exactly like you are saying. :) ~ On the second part of your comment, well, you are talking about "web designer" specifically, and with a very specific definition of it as well. If that's your definition, then yes, he have to do that. But er, it looks more like a Frontend Developer to me, and I never heard of a "Concept Artist". ;) However, it's a matter of terminology here, and there's surely some confusion about it. :)
wpietri 15y ago
Amen. As far as I'm concerned, a "web designer" who refuses to learn CSS is like a "painter" who won't learn about working with paint, or a "musician" who can't carry a tune or play an instrument.

folletto 15y ago

Pigeon-holing? Quite the opposite. I'm making the difference between "should" and "could". That's exactly because not everyone is a specialist, neither I am, but at the same time not everyone is a generalist! :) Exactly like I'm saying in the middle of the article, "you have to know this stuff", but you don't have to know also how this stuff is done, you can, of course. But it's not a must. :) It's always sad for me to hear people with bad experiences with designers or developers, but really, I don't think that "code" is the answer. I believe that "teamwork" is the answer. Knowing. Discussing. Collaborating. I've never seen a team doing that failing, regardless of the mix of skills :)

agentultra 15y ago
It's the "Theory of Multiple Intelligences" bit that gave me the impression of pigeon-holing. And the paragraph preceding it where you go on about the typical high-school stereotypes. And the rest of the article is built on the premise of a dichotomy where creativity is separate from technical ability... the whole "left brain/right brain" idea. It's bunk! I think the split is actually in designer/front-end developer. If you want to make analogies to other industries, I think your concept of designer is more analogous to a "concept artist". The person who has the good ideas that are not restrained by the burden of having to think about how to build them. However when I hear, "web designer" -- I'm thinking of someone who can create or take a concept and actually build it. Someone who uses the tools available (HTML, CSS, Javascript, et al) to create something. This person does have to know how to build their ideas from the tools available. And I think for most projects the designer is also the concept artist. Very few (if any) web projects actually need those roles filled by two separate specialists. So I don't think it's bullshit. Designers should know how to code. And they should be good at it too.
- folletto 15y ago
  Again, I agree. The whole article isn't built on that dichotomy. It's just a sequence from a simple perspective to a more complex perspective, and actually ends saying that it's better if you are willing to expand your view, exactly like you are saying. :) ~ On the second part of your comment, well, you are talking about "web designer" specifically, and with a very specific definition of it as well. If that's your definition, then yes, he have to do that. But er, it looks more like a Frontend Developer to me, and I never heard of a "Concept Artist". ;) However, it's a matter of terminology here, and there's surely some confusion about it. :)

wpietri 15y ago

Amen. As far as I'm concerned, a "web designer" who refuses to learn CSS is like a "painter" who won't learn about working with paint, or a "musician" who can't carry a tune or play an instrument.