Hybrid Employee of the Month
We’re back! Looks like my site endured the trip down to London okay and has settled into it’s plush new surroundings in the big smoke. Access feels a bit faster from here, but coming through ADSL at (cough) work there seems little difference.
Molly E. Holzschlag has written an excellent article, Designers vs. Programmers, Calling a Truce, on webtechniques.com discussing the modern roles of web programmers and web designers.
Working more and more with code, whether it be html, php or xml, I’ve found myself moving increasingly into the traditional domain of programmers, although still keeping a careful eye on the design and usability of the project. By this logic I would say that a modern web developer (trying to think of an intermediate term) needs to have programming and visual design skills to achieve the greatest innovation, or as Holzschlag terms it - a hybrid employee.
Without superior management, teams of designers and programmers will produce conflicts of interest which in turn hinders the development and innovation of a project. It’s a problematic subject, and it’s obvious to see how difficult it is for companies to recruit staff with the right mix of skills.
There is a quote at the end of the article by Alan Richmond, publisher of Encyclozine which seems to perfectly sum up the issue -
"A good site isn’t built only by brilliant programmers, or by talented graphic artists, or by lucid content authors, or by insightful managers. It will be built by their synergy, each one respecting the contributions of the others, and feeding off it for the inspiration for their own creativity. Building the Web is a collaboration at all levels."
Posted 10 years, 6 months ago