BOSTON — New terminology is needed to describe the role designers play in Web site development agreed a panel of designers and technologists at Seybold Seminars. Spurred by a debate over the convergence of design and programming, the proposal didn’t generate any new terms – yet.
“As Web teams grow up, we realize that ‘designer’ isn’t enough,” said Doug Gray, art director at Banta Integrated Media. Designers are expected to know not only two-dimensional design but three-dimensional design that encompasses interface design, usability, and navigation.
The question running through the panel discussion centered on the extent to which designers need to know engineering and vice versa. Robert Raines, vice president and creative director of America Online asserted that designers need to keep focussed on their craft. While it benefits them to understand the limits technology imposes on them, there is no need to understand the nuances.
“The line between the technical and creative disciplines needs to be there,” Raines said.
Aaron Oppenheimer, design lead at Boston-based Art Technology Group, disagreed. “We need to remove barriers between designers and developers. Designers and coders need to talk every step of the way,” he said. The best web sites, he said are those where teams take the effort to understand each other’s worlds. “Graphic designers need to understand engineering limitations, and engineers need to understand why color and typography are so important.”
Lisa Beaudoin, art director of America Online, agreed. “Designers are beholden to coders and programmers to realize their vision,” she said. “Designers need to forecast potential usability as part of their complete creative vision.”
The trend is to blend job descriptions on Web development teams, as engineers tackle usability issues and designers refine code in HTML – not often with great results. The solution, the panel agreed, comes back to human, not software, interaction. “You need to develop a level of respect between teams,” said Audrey Witters, director of engineering at iSyndicate.
“Engineers believe they can design a user interface when they have little understanding of the design process, and designers believe they can program Web sites when their knowledge of engineering is limited.”
Tom Hale, VP of marketing for Macromedia, asserted that as Web site development matures, those people who have knowledge of both design and programming will be desirable in a fast-moving employment market.
But looking ahead, Witters said she thinks content, design and engineering become segmented as the demand for “user-relevant” design increases. “The separation trend will be led by wireless devices such as PalmPilots and cellular phones,” she said. When the user experience is determined by the screen size of a cellular phone and by push-button navigation, design will undergo yet another transformation.
This article was last modified on February 8, 2000
This article was first published on February 8, 2000
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