37 signals wrote this week ‘Web designers should do their own HTML / CSS’. This post basically follows thinking I’ve had for a long time where by you shouldn’t call yourself a web designer if you can not code HTML/ CSS. As expected there are some pretty strong for and against opinions in the comments. In the past I’ve been fairly vocal myself about my opinion on this and also experienced in my working life the frustration of making up a design from someone who doesn’t understand the web as a medium or HTML / CSS.
Potters know what clay is.
It is an obvious frustration that some people (thankfully this does seem to be on the decrease) who ‘design for web’ have no understanding of what that means. One area sadly is those print designers who end up doing a bit of web design ‘on the side’ which quickly becomes more than the side. As I have sat in both the developer and designer camp I know only too well the frustration of having to make up a design created by someone who is not aware of the medium they are designing for. One of the major areas often designers who do not know the web as a medium or code XHTML / CSS fall down on is realising the web is not print. In a website there are conventions you can work in and use to bolster your design. Link styles, navigation, the fluidity of the web as a medium – these all play a part and if you don’t understand them you can’t use them as tools to create your design.
What type of site you are designing also should be understood. Can you honestly think that a designer could create a good blog design without understanding what WordPress (or the blogging platform they are designing for) can or can’t do? Would they be able to know all the tools available to them and use them to their optimum? If a designer doesn’t even know what a CMS is or what commerce systems are how can they design a site that works for it. Of course, I’m not saying they have to be able to code these systems from scratch, but knowing what they do or don’t do and what functions they can use in their design, surely that is essential? I simply think it’s either a very very rare person or impossible for a designer to be able to only ever work in Photoshop and not even know how to code XHTML / CSS or what the mediums they are designing for can do.
Changes in response to coding.
If you are the designer of the code and making up the HTML / CSS you have the ability to interpret and develop your design in this phase. I never see a design fully complete until the HTML / CSS has been done as more often than not by going through the coding process it evolves. I feel designs mature through this process and for me to not have this part of the process in the majority of my work would be a shame. On those projects where I’ve not been able to do this I at least because I understand the medium can work with the developer and get solutions. My designs at the start are made with the understanding I have of the medium from being able to code myself.
Harsh but true.
I’m probably just like the 37 signals article not making friends in this post, but you know what I’ve sort of gone beyond caring on that one. For far too long the web has been seen as an easy design option that you do not need to know the relevant skills to design for. If we are ever as web designers to take it to the level of a full profession where skilled workers are recognised we have to take a stance. The web, HTML and CSS are not closed books and it does not take long to grasp a rudimentary ability in them – there can be no real excuse for a ‘web designer’ to not be able to do their own code.
I fully understand that sometimes the working process does not allow the designer to be able to produce the code – I guess my point really is ‘can they’ – if not they shouldn’t be designing for the web. It’s not that you do produce every line as this is a luxury I often have but some don’t, however if you can’t what on earth are you doing designing for the web? Print designers have to understand printing processes and what needs to be done to get something looking right in print. So why shouldn’t web designers also have to know XHTML / CSS and understand what a website is. When I design as someone that can code in XHTML / CSS I understand what I am designing for. To me that is a strong point and often the difference between a design working or not.
I’ve never fully understood where this kind of posts comes from — and I’ve read a few. Are there really people out there who know nothing of HTML and call themselves web designers?
Look, I’ve been dabbling in design, DTP and print, HTML/CSS for years now, I’ve done a couple sites in simple code from scratch and I occasionally help people out modding a CMS (often WordPress) to their (basic) needs. I do the pix and the vector logo, I mess with the code and the structure, but I hardly “design”, let alone develop.
If I read posts like this (which obviously indicate there’s cowboys out there charging more and doing less) I’m seriously considering changing my profile and putting out an ad.
Of course, all this does not mean that I don’t sympathize; I know you and others are real designers and I can only imagine what it must feel like when the fools you refer to come along and run off with your clients because they do it cheaper.
Sadly yes Nils there are people out there calling themselves web designers or designers that can design for the web. It’s not just cowboys often it also comes from companies not understanding what is or isn’t a web designer. Sadly again it’s not always they do it cheaper it’s more that we need to have some education both sides of the fence.
I’ll summarise a few of the mind boggling comments from people on the 37 signals post:
“I think most people would agree that html/css is not for the faint of heart. I know several great designers who have provided fantastic work for our company, and we use our expertise with html/css to get those designs working cross-platform”
“You would be leaving a lot of great designers out of the loop if you forced them to understand the insanity of browser CSS compatibility.”
“I worked with a very good designer a few years ago. He started his designs in Photoshop, and did all kinds of neat gradient stuff and mockups there; this was very good for client relations, because no client I’ve ever worked with has been able to understand “this is a prototype system, we still have to build the back end.”
I especially like that last quote. It’s hard to believe but a lot of people have no clue, it’s true. You could smack a couple full-screen PNGs with hot spots on there and they couldn’t tell the diff…
Good luck with the struggle ;)
Lol yes we need badges and banners :)
I get mind boggled about once a month as that is about how often encounter this myself, sadly sometimes more. I do both my own design work and work purely as a front end developer on projects. What really gets you as a developer who makes the design up is when the client clings to a design that simply can’t work across all browsers or has an ounce of usability in it, just because they have been shown the mock up by a designer who hasn’t got a clue.
This article has definitely sparked some commentary and controversy.
Personally, I’m very careful in how I call myself, a ‘web designer’. I’m a designer, in the sense that, I can design to a level that is appreciated by most.
I can also code, but, recently I’ve been outsourcing. Is that bad?
I’m always aware that everything I create, can be executed in CSS/HTML. In fact, the last guy I outsourced to was a very capable with CSS/HTML, but I was giving him lessons in how to do things with WordPress in order to complete the work. I also ended up adding, and editing much of the layout after the work was handed over.
I delight in designing websites, but, I prefer to hand the heavy code work to others when I can.
Most Web designers have no clue about design or how to innovate and push the usability of the web/app interfaces forward.Yes they can code a design but its a given that a website will be technically good. Great design is the only factor that seperates different websites and brands.A fantastic design is technically possible if you work with a great coder who know s there tools.
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I think I have a different scope, I have posted my reply over here…
As someone who does web design in his spare time, I find it mind-boggling that people can learn how to be great at graphics but know next to nothing about the hard code and call themselves ‘web designers’. Maybe I am indeed an amateur who’s missing the point here, but isn’t functionality (code that actually *works*) and clarity more important than looking flashy? Do some pros actually think like that?!
I suppose CSS has separated the structure and appearance of code but I think the points you raise here are no less important than they used to be. If anything, it’s more important – as the web expands and connection speeds allow for increasingly graphic-rich pages with flash animations and whatnot, it must be tempting to make pretty, eye-catching pages with W3C valid HTML as an afterthought. Personally, I wouldn’t have known where to start when designing my own Wordpress theme unless I felt confident in knowing what those header, list and paragraph tags actually do!
Anyway, it’s an interesting blog you have here – I was looking for a design-centric site to add to my feedreader. (:
Photoshop is a good tool but you cannot do a whole website with photoshop.
I agree with the vast majority of what you have written. Keep up the good work.
Photoshop is good for pictures but not for the whole web site.
If you cannot code perfect HTML, CSS and Javascript then you are not fit to call yourself a web designer, end of story. You are a student who is learning or needs to learn. We are professionals. It takes time, skill and dedication to master the disciplines you need in order to call yourself a web professional in any part of the field.
If you do graphic design, then great, you are a graphic designer. But without solid web technology experience under your belt, that is all you are.
(full disclosure: playing the devil’s advocate) I have a different take. 99% of what web designers do is so unnecessary it isn’t even funny. You might want to turn your critical faculties toward your own emerging industry. Spinning, gif flame skulls are still just spinning gif flame skulls even if they are “coded” in ruby on rails. Try explaining why every joe client needs a blog or cms? A huge waste of time and money worthy of the internet bubble days if you ask me. Until you start respecting communication, a good print designer will be able to beat you with a single well kerned splash page. Maybe you should all be forced to read some Edward Tufte before you are unleashed on unsuspecting clients?
Boom baby . . .