Programmingvs.Design
Whenyouthinkaboutawebpagethatyouenjoyorwouldliketocopy,whatdoyouthink
of?Morethanlikely,you’rethinkingoftheaestheticlayoutofthewebsite.Thecolors,the
waysomethingmoveswhenyouclickonit,orperhapstheeaseofuseorconvenienceof
the website. Typically, the person who is responsible for the aesthetics of the site is
differentthan theperson responsiblefor thecoding ofthe site,not onlyin name,butin
corecompetenciesaswell.
Therearemanywaystoundergoaprogramorwebdesign.Themostcompleteonestarts
withathoroughinterviewoftheclientregardingtheirneeds,theircompany’soperations,
theirlogos,andanythingelsethatmaybepertinenttothedevelopmentofaprogramor
website that will eventually represent the image of that company. It is a very specific
competency to be able to listen to a client and gather enough information at the very
beginningtounderstandwhattheclientwantsoutofaprogramfunctionally, as well as
aesthetically.Oftentimestheclientreallyhasnoideawhathereallywants,buthecertainly
knowswhathedoesn’twant.Unfortunately,clientsoftenfigureoutwhattheydon’twant
onlyafterthedeveloperhasalreadyproducedit!
A program or website can be split into two different components—design and
development(alsoknownasprogramming).Thedesignaspectincludeschoosingcolors,
definingthelayout, and defining the interactivitythat might be involved, and isusually
accomplished by a graphics designer or web designer. User interface design is also an
aspect that is so important, it is often considered its own category, and we’ll discuss it
separatelybecausetheidealuserinterfacedesignerdoesnotsharethesametraitsasthe
idealgraphicsdesigner.
Thepersonwhowritesthecodeisoftenreferredtoaseithertheprogrammerordeveloper,
and frequently is referred to within the context of the programming language they’re
writingin.Forexample,awebprogrammermaybecalledaPHPprogrammer,oraJava
developer will be called exactly that. The traits and background of a successful
programmerare significantly different than those of agood designer or user experience
designer.
Theidealdesigneriscreativeandunderstandsthemessagethatistobeconveyed.agood
designercantakeaninterviewwithaclientandcreateagood-looking,appealingdesign
byusingtypography,graphics,sound(maybe),pictures,videos,andanythingelsethatcan
beseenorheard.Manytimesthispersonisactuallyworkingindependentlyoftherestof
theteam,astheyhavenoneedtointeractwithprogrammers,ifusingtherighttools,asthe
websiteprogresses.
Designershaveaverycreativeandartisticjob.Theyhavetomergetherequirementsof
functionalitywiththemoreartisticsideofvisuallypleasingappearances.Ifdonecorrectly,
theywillbeabletodesignaprogramthatausercanuseintuitively,withlittlethoughtas
tohowthey’reusingit,allthewhiledrawingtheuserinwiththebeautyofthewebsite’s
graphicsandphotos.
Thetraitstolookforinadesignerarecreativity,imagination,andintuition.Ifcandidates
don’thaveabackgroundinprogramorsitedesign,thentheyshouldhaveoneingraphics