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Tags: Communication, Usability

The terms "web designer" and "web developer" can mean just about anything, depending on who’s using them and why. I’m going to make a case for definitions that indicate two different skill sets, with each offering different services (perhaps with some minor overlap on occasion). Hopefully, there will eventually be widespread agreement about the differences and areas of overlap in the designations. In the meantime, there’s a comment form at the end of this post that begs for your disagreement with (or support for) my opinions about these terms.

Web Designer

Web designers are first, and foremost, designers. They might be able to tinker with javascript to make an existing jQuery plugin look or behave the way they want, and they might be able to copy and paste and rework some minor php, but they’re unable to write their own functions. And databases? Fugeddaboudit!

However, web designers are experts at CSS, Photoshop, and XHTML. Given half a chance, they can bore you to death with discussions about how to clear floats or when (or if) it’s appropriate to use tables. They understand web typography, color, spacing of elements, navigation, directing eye-path, enhancing user experience and accessibility, and have at least a working knowledge of information architecture.

Assuming they’re good at what they do, when they complete a website, it looks good, it’s easy to navigate, the information is readable, and the site’s look and feel supports and enhances the content. Web designers are sometimes referred to as "front-end developers," but in my mind this term indicates some expertise in javascript.

Web Developer

Web developers offer significant programming services and database development in whichever flavors they have chosen to master. At a personal level, they may or may not also be web designers, but usually not. Few people are competent at both design and programming (I don’t know a single expert programmer I would hire as a designer).

I’ve also found that the term "programmer" means different things to different people ("designer" is subject to interpretation also: everyone who owns a copy of Dreamweaver or InDesign calls themselves a designer). Some people who press buttons in .NET call themselves programmers, even though they are unable to write even the simplest functions. As a result, when they’re part of a web team, the rest of the team adapts to the needs of the software, instead of having the programmer adapt to achieve the desired result.

At a company level, a web development company may be comprised of people who, individually, could not offer both design and programming at professional levels of competence. I consider myself a web designer. My company is a web development company because my business partner has very strong complementary skill sets in programming and database development. We’ve always joked that, while we can accomplish a lot together, individually we’re kind of pathetic. At least I think she was joking…

Tags: CSS, Design/Development

I started my design career as a print designer. At that time, there was no Internet, and no such thing as a website. In fact, computers were not something designers used, or thought they ever would use. About a decade later, Macintosh, Aldus Pagemaker, and Photoshop changed all that, and print design, or at least print production, became something we did onscreen. Frankly, I was glad to not to risk my fingers to X-acto knives any more.

A few years later, in the early ’90s, websites appeared. Most designers, myself included, did not immediately grasp the differences between print design and web design (my first homepage layout was vertical, with a huge image). After all, we’d been doing print onscreen, so what was the big deal?

Eventually, those of us who had gravitated toward web design began to understand there are fundamental differences, some of which are so profound that trying to do both print and web design can leave a designer feeling schizophrenic jumping back and forth. It’s not just a matter of using different tools, or the same tools in different ways, or even understanding the specific technical requirements differently (e.g., color, font-sizing, etc.): the mindsets of successful print and web designers are very different. As a result, only a small percentage of designers are truly competent in both disciplines, and even fewer are brilliant in both.

Here are some of the major differences:

Control vs. Lack of Control Over the End Result

Print designers who do not obsess over every minor detail of a print job aren’t doing their job. Font selection, color selection, paper color and weight, color separations, press checks, etc.: it’s all about controlling what the end user sees or holds in their hand. Web designers, on the other hand, know they have much less control over what the end user sees. Differences in browsers, platforms, monitors, and even user-defined style sheets limit web designer control. It used to be considered OK for a web designer to use image-based typography and tables for more print design-like control, until it was commonly understood that accessibility was critical for users with disabilities. Good web designers accept that they have, at best, "conditional" control of what the end user sees, and focus on website design that is both accessible to users with disabilities, and looks good to visitors using common browsers. When the print design obsession for control is brought to web design, usually accessibility is the first casualty.

Orderly vs. Random Access to Information

When a print designer creates a product brochure, they have a reasonable expectation that people will start on the front cover and proceed through it from front to back, or maybe flip directly from the front to the back to find product specs or contact information. But they’re going to start on page one most of the time, and if there is a message there, they will at least make note of it. And if for some reason, they pick up an already opened brochure, they can see clearly they’re in the middle of the publication, and decide where to turn from there. Thanks to search engines and links from other websites, visitors can arrive directly on any page on a website. Web designers cannot assume that someone will arrive on a page having already seen another page (aside from checkout processes and similar cases). Visitors often don’t even view the homepage, because they know that it’s usually not full of particularly useful information. Information design and navigation design (not just how they look, but how they function in helping people find information) become critical in creating a usable, well-designed website. The print design mindset is still in evidence on the majority of corporate and business websites in the "front cover" approach to the homepage.

Project Completed vs. Project Never Completed

Print designers complete a project, then they take it to the printer, and it’s done. Yes, they might make changes and reprint it, but there is a definite point at which they can say, "I’m done with that project!" Web designers rarely get that warm, fuzzy, self-congratulatory moment. Unless we get fired or fire a client, we’re never done with a website. It’s like birthing a baby: you can’t just bring it to life and ignore it. Sooner or later it will spit up or need a diaper change, and it will always be hungry for content. Even if a website includes a content management system so clients can add and update their own content, there are always things that need to be added, changed, or reorganized in ways that are beyond the technical skills of our clients, or beyond the capabilities of the CMS. And that’s a good thing! The worst thing that can happen is that a client thinks of their website as an online brochure, and it becomes a set-it-and-forget-it site.

Tags: Design/Development