In the first half of my career, early 80's to mid 90's, there was rarely such thing as an independent UX/UI designer - it was just a specialty of some programme

In the first half of my career, early 80's to mid 90's, there was rarely such thing as an independent UX/UI designer - it was just a specialty of some programmers. I spent nearly a decade being both a lead programmer and chief designer of the UI. All three major apps were well received and one still is on the market today (sadly not updated much). Today it is considered a distinct specialty though there are still a few folks who practice both.