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If a developer is designing and creating software solutions, then he or she is a designer. The characterization of software development as something other than

If a developer is designing and creating software solutions, then he or she is a designer. The characterization of software development as something other than design is incredibly unfortunate and misguided. What's actually happening here is that many people now erroneously use the word "design" to mean "visual design in the tradition of waterfall-centric, industrial graphic design where ideation and production are separate," which in the context of software is extremely ambiguous, anyway, since it could refer to illustration, user experience design, graphic design, information architecture, and plenty of other things. Yes, there are specializations. But the stereotypes of technologically illiterate "designers" and neckbeard, tasteless "developers" are outdated, though unfortunately still pervasive in the industry. There's no reason that anyone identifying as a "designer" can't gain a deep understanding of modern web or native development technologies and environments. There's no reason that someone identifying as a "developer" can't learn about "design" and the creative process.

adrianhoward 13y ago
There's no reason that someone identifying as a "developer" can't learn about "design" and the creative process. And vice versa.
k__ 13y ago
Second that. But many people have a narrow view on _design_. They think of it as something graphical. Like deciding what something should look like. So a software engineer won't call himself a software designer. It just sounds like he makes wireframes all the day and won't programm one line of code.
jakejake 13y ago
I've been a developer for over 20 years. For all of that time I've had to be a bit of a designer as well. I am, at my very best, an adequate designer. Most of the time my design is merely adequate and it takes me ages to do even that. So, you could call me a designer. A poorly skilled designer. I find most developers, if they even do design at all, it is at a similar level as me. And some designers do a little coding but they tend to find the code rather tedious and boring. Not sure what my point is except that I do think it is a rare creature who is excellent at both - regardless of what this article implies. They are both tough skills to master and generally require focusing on one or the other.
- bennyg 13y ago
  I would honestly call myself both. I have a traditional BA in Art with a focus on Graphic Design. I love illustrating, maintain a sketchbook of drawings, help create posters for people, and can call out fonts all day. I'm also a developer. I have 6 apps on the iOS App Store, all coded by moi, and all designed by moi. Beyond iOS, I've also written some neural networks in JavaScript and just yesterday I turned my Raspberry Pi into a cloud media player - writing a PHP script to go through all folders on my external HD and find the audio files, check their metadata and add the file path/metadata into a database, then stream it from an app of my own design. I think it's a new age, where the stereotypes of designers being afraid to read/pore over code are gone. Code is becoming more and more commonplace. Almost everyone at my university fulfills their 2 classes of foreign language by taking 2 classes of CS (you have to do one or the other), and one of those classes is usually an HTML/JS variant. I also believe that in this new age, making ugly but functional software has gone by the wayside too. People are utilizing software ALL DAY because of smartphones now - where the bar for great visual design has been raised so much higher due to the big name brands like FB and Twitter investing so much in great products. Because of this, software engineers that have (even a small amount of) front end work to accomplish are forced to make more conscious visual design considerations than they have in the past. And this is a good thing.
  - seanmcdirmid 13y ago
    Are you also an interaction designer (wireframe, storyboarding kind)? How about industrial design? If a visual designer, do you specialize in motion, or color and typography? And how about being skilled in doing some user research? Just as developers specialize in different fields, so do designers. And designers...don't really need to code. Its not that they can't, they just don't have time to. Its more likely that the programmer lacks design resources and must make decisions on their own. And ya, those decisions will suck until we've made them a few times. Most apps on the app store are crappily designed; the ones that are well designed had enough money behind them to hire a designer.
    - bennyg 13y ago
wladimir 13y ago
But the stereotypes of technologically illiterate "designers" and neckbeard, tasteless "developers" are outdated, though unfortunately still pervasive in the industry The problem is that one person cannot possibly learn about everything. One has to make choices. If you spend time learning graphical design rules, you cannot use that time to learn some new algorithm, or how to do business, or some other thing life asks of you. The idea that everyone can be a jack of all trades is equally misguided. I agree that learning everything around your trade up to a certain level is a good idea (to have a clue what people are talking about), but people that specialize in an area tend to underestimate how much time it took them to become experienced in that area, and trivialize how easy others can learn to be adept in their area of expertise.
- randomdata 13y ago
  > One has to make choices. If you spend time learning graphical design rules, you cannot use that time to learn some new algorithm For what it is worth, in my misspent youth, I started learning about design in elementary school and started learning about development early in high school. I do believe you are correct, but perhaps underestimate just how much time is at one's disposal.

adrianhoward 13y ago

There's no reason that someone identifying as a "developer" can't learn about "design" and the creative process. And vice versa.

k__ 13y ago

Second that. But many people have a narrow view on _design_. They think of it as something graphical. Like deciding what something should look like. So a software engineer won't call himself a software designer. It just sounds like he makes wireframes all the day and won't programm one line of code.

jakejake 13y ago

I've been a developer for over 20 years. For all of that time I've had to be a bit of a designer as well. I am, at my very best, an adequate designer. Most of the time my design is merely adequate and it takes me ages to do even that. So, you could call me a designer. A poorly skilled designer. I find most developers, if they even do design at all, it is at a similar level as me. And some designers do a little coding but they tend to find the code rather tedious and boring. Not sure what my point is except that I do think it is a rare creature who is excellent at both - regardless of what this article implies. They are both tough skills to master and generally require focusing on one or the other.

bennyg 13y ago
I would honestly call myself both. I have a traditional BA in Art with a focus on Graphic Design. I love illustrating, maintain a sketchbook of drawings, help create posters for people, and can call out fonts all day. I'm also a developer. I have 6 apps on the iOS App Store, all coded by moi, and all designed by moi. Beyond iOS, I've also written some neural networks in JavaScript and just yesterday I turned my Raspberry Pi into a cloud media player - writing a PHP script to go through all folders on my external HD and find the audio files, check their metadata and add the file path/metadata into a database, then stream it from an app of my own design. I think it's a new age, where the stereotypes of designers being afraid to read/pore over code are gone. Code is becoming more and more commonplace. Almost everyone at my university fulfills their 2 classes of foreign language by taking 2 classes of CS (you have to do one or the other), and one of those classes is usually an HTML/JS variant. I also believe that in this new age, making ugly but functional software has gone by the wayside too. People are utilizing software ALL DAY because of smartphones now - where the bar for great visual design has been raised so much higher due to the big name brands like FB and Twitter investing so much in great products. Because of this, software engineers that have (even a small amount of) front end work to accomplish are forced to make more conscious visual design considerations than they have in the past. And this is a good thing.
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago
  Are you also an interaction designer (wireframe, storyboarding kind)? How about industrial design? If a visual designer, do you specialize in motion, or color and typography? And how about being skilled in doing some user research? Just as developers specialize in different fields, so do designers. And designers...don't really need to code. Its not that they can't, they just don't have time to. Its more likely that the programmer lacks design resources and must make decisions on their own. And ya, those decisions will suck until we've made them a few times. Most apps on the app store are crappily designed; the ones that are well designed had enough money behind them to hire a designer.
  - bennyg 13y ago

wladimir 13y ago

But the stereotypes of technologically illiterate "designers" and neckbeard, tasteless "developers" are outdated, though unfortunately still pervasive in the industry The problem is that one person cannot possibly learn about everything. One has to make choices. If you spend time learning graphical design rules, you cannot use that time to learn some new algorithm, or how to do business, or some other thing life asks of you. The idea that everyone can be a jack of all trades is equally misguided. I agree that learning everything around your trade up to a certain level is a good idea (to have a clue what people are talking about), but people that specialize in an area tend to underestimate how much time it took them to become experienced in that area, and trivialize how easy others can learn to be adept in their area of expertise.

randomdata 13y ago
> One has to make choices. If you spend time learning graphical design rules, you cannot use that time to learn some new algorithm For what it is worth, in my misspent youth, I started learning about design in elementary school and started learning about development early in high school. I do believe you are correct, but perhaps underestimate just how much time is at one's disposal.