In my opinion, most developers can produce a good, or even great, design in acceptable time if they just wish so, while the reverse doesn't apply. For a develo

In my opinion, most developers can produce a good, or even great, design in acceptable time if they just wish so, while the reverse doesn't apply. For a developer to come up with a good design, it takes: (a) common-sense, (b) compatible-to-mainstream perception of what is ugly, and (c) willingness to look around for ideas and play with things they might consider boring. I have yet to encounter a decent developer that manages to do without (a) -hm, ok maybe I know one java developer, but he's a special case!- (b) seems about equally common and (c) is only a matter of motivation. On the other hand, most designers I have met appear unable to try grasping and utilizing the simplest of programming concepts. I don't know if their brain is wired differently or if they despise or fear that stuff so much that their subconscious blocks anything related, but, in any way, they seem much less capable in producing any code in any amount of time, than most developers in producing a pretty and usable design in a reasonable amount of time. That's just my simple observation, based on the 15-20 people of both professions that I know well enough. So, for projects that want just a good design (i.e. at the level of twitter's) and not an WOW-super-original design, I think that the work is fundamentally simpler than coding, doesn't need much expertise and most developers can do it pretty well if they want. For those projects at least, which is the majority, I don't see how designers are, or should be, more valuable than coders. For more specialized projects, like a desktop environment, usability experts and designers might be a requirement, but still, I wouldn't go as far as to consider them more valuable.