2 ms·
The role of "designer" is by definition a person who doesn't get their hands dirty. It's one that depends on other people to make things happen. Care to justif
by ahoyhere 15y ago
The role of "designer" is by definition a person who doesn't get their hands dirty. It's one that depends on other people to make things happen.
Care to justify that statement with evidence?
Or do you think that only back-end code will make your hands dirty, and not research, requirements gathering, ensuring the product does what paying customers want and expect, customer support, analyzing, categorizing, prioritizing customer feedback, analyzing usage statistics to divine customer intent, creating and managing a/b tests, writing road maps, defining feature sets, managing development, html, css, wireframing, testing?
In companies I've worked with, the developers have been sheltered from most of the "real work" of turning their code into an actual business, but simultaneously believe that they are the only ones contributing value. It's cute.
- wpietri 15y agoGladly. What you're talking about goes well beyond the formal role of "designer". Consider, for example, what happens if you sign up with one of the many outsourced design firms. They won't do most of that. The good ones might do some user research. But that's not guaranteed; what they all promise to do is produce a very pretty document with a bunch photoshop mockups. Which an implementation team is expected to execute as written. I definitely think developers should be active participants in all that work you describe. (I sure am.) Which is exactly why I encourage people not to have a formal "designer" role. If there's somebody who's officially responsible for X, then everybody else isn't. Design is a pervasive concern.