Im been forcing on my brains for the very little bits of juices for web design for the past few days and realised that web design is totally different from web development. Being proficient in web programming doesn’t make me a pro web designer. I’ve got 3 freelance projects on hand and I wld rather code php/mysql than html/css/psd. Allow me to share this:
- PHP/MYSQL is straightforward. If you don’t get the results from the database, just keep troubleshoot
- Its design-less. I dont need to do color charts or layout design. Its just the output.
- Javascript is a bonus, not a must (to me). Some users might disable their javascript and cripple the functions, thus it will defeat my backend purpose (although the real-time update is really cool)
Now, as a part-time web designer:
- Colors are important. It brings the users attention!
- Typography. Font family, size and emphasis!
- Layout to place your contents and navigation. It must be as user friendly and intuitive as possible!
- Navigations are crucial too. They define the user’s experience.
- Pictures speak a thousand words. Get the pictures right!
- Gradiency with web2.0! Layout graphics tend to look more cooler in gradient.
Web developer usually dont look at the front-end side. They don’t work much with graphics and layout and may not design as better as designers but at least they’re well-versed in codings!
This article is written as of my experience as a free-lance web designer in a cosmetic company. Many web enthusiasts may disagree with what I had say but its really what I felt. Time to get back to brainstorm for better designs!
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lol, doing html/css is part of web developer’s role lei.. not exactly web designer’s.
disagree leh.. even if web developers do html/css, we just make sure that it is semantical to the standards. The colors and typography, layout and stuffs still lies with the web designer..
Agree with Draco. You’re talking about the role of a programmer, and not a developer. Job title are usually screwed up in our industry, but this distinction is pretty straightforward.
I agree with phusion, I’m a web developer too. Cause if the designer only pass the PSD file to the developer, the developer will need to do everything from slicing the graphics, converting it to html and CSS then do all the programming stuff.
I agree with you. Whenever I start to try to design something, I end up failing badly. But when I want to program, it’s much easier. Just debug when necessary. Web design is an art that I have failed to master.
=) great! nice to know that I’m not alone! thanks guys!
Ya thats why I never include psd ma, developers don’t do the psd, they just write out the css html to conform with the design as it is ma.
hm.. as a web developer, I still think its more of a designer’s job than a developer.
This may be offensive, if a web developer job including converting web design to html & css then what should a web designer do after designing? Would it be too easy for them?
Hi Superman!
I stand in your point of view but they’re well versed in photoshops, indesigns and illustrators and not the codings. The metaphore I can think of is, try asking the farmer to sell veggies in the market, they may not do as well because they don’t have the ’soft’ skills. They only the ‘hard’ skills. In a nutshell, designers cant code (not all!, just some bit of them)
Then again, it depends on how we view them. Designers will insists on the web developer doing the html code and we will always insist them doing their own css/html.
Like I said, its best to let the designer do it because they are the ones who are familiar with their colors and typographies and stuffs, not the developer. I don’t think designers will add javascript, still they ought to be incharge of the front end design and for validations and database etc, leave it to the developers.
Actually, I will only consider myself as a web developer if Im designing an application/database related web engines. Else, Im just a html/css coder and not really a designer because coders don’t do much designs other than placing information around with css.
Well, whos to say?
Dino: sorry your comment was in spam (so whats wrong with kismet!?)
I think you might have the definition all mixed up. According to wiki, do a search on web programmer and they will redirect you to web design instead. I believe the reason is that people in WWW believes web programmer is the one who does web design as well.
On the other hand, do a search on web developer and you’ll find the distinct difference.
On their site, they defined that “A web developer is a software developer or software engineer who is specifically engaged in the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over the HTTP protocol from a web server to a web browser.”
And this is what im talking about =)