Programmer who knows good design
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- studderine0
almost everywhere that i have worked the designers DO NOT code a all. if you work for a smaller shop, you'd probably find the coder/designer.
- studderine0
if a designer has 40 hours to spit out a design, and say 10-15 of those are needed to code..well there goes the design quality.
- You're describing a 55hr project condensed in 40hrs. THAT's the reason why quality would go out the door.zarkonite
- kingsteven0
http://www.pixelperfectplugin.co…
the cure for "5px to the left, make that 2 points smaller, stab stab"
- Autokern0
To all you moaning people i'd make you try to get a layout "pixel perfect" on IE6, or keep it exactly consistent throughout all the borwsers out there, so you would MAYBE understand.
- ********0
Basically, you're asking 1 person to do a 2 man job.
I wouldn't expect any self-respecting, hardcore developer to care about the UI, because you should have already supplied it via a competent front-end developer.
- NoFavorite0
The bottom line:
If someone is hired to do frontend coding (HTML / CSS), it should 100% match the design, be optimized, be SEO friendly, and render in everything down to IE6.
- jimzy0
thats a bit stupid
he knows programming and shit
you know baselines and shita programmer is a programmer
a designer is a designer
a sausage is a sausage
- tgqt0
I find that the younger, upcoming designers and programmers have the crossover skills that you are referencing here. Get in touch with the local university tech dept. and you will find a person there.
- Daithi0
I was in the same position, and learnt HTML/CSS as a result. I had constantly been doing layouts that were being mangled by front-end folks.
The most important thing about learning it was to understand that it's not print and that it will never be the same in every browser, so as a designer you need to build in tolerances for that and accept the things that just can't look 100% like they do in photoshop. (And to know when the front-end person was being lazy.)
Now I code to a certain level of complexity, and if it doesn't work in IE6 etc I look for help from a programmer. I can show them it in FF / Safari and ask them to emulate to as close as possible.
Learning HTML / CSS is not hard and there are good programmes out there (CSS Edit / Coda, Eric Meyer's CSS Sculptor) to start you on the road.
- cuke4260
i drew a pic of a car that looks cool and i'm pissed the engineer didn't build it right.
if you're a print designer and don't know the technical limitations of the printer, final output size, envelope dimensions, etc you are going to have a tricky time getting anything super sweet. you don't need to be the expert printer but you need to know a lot more than what's 'pretty'
if you're a web designer - to clarify - if you are designing anything that is going to be viewed on the web - you should have a working knowledge of browser limitations, when/why flash is good/bad, how fonts work, some ui/ux experience, etc. you don't need to know every little optimization shorthand technique but you need to know the basics.
- nocomply0
Check out my portfolio and send me an email if you're still in need of a good front-end developer. I work as a freelancer and although I do a decent amount of design, front-end dev and CMS customization has really become my bread and butter.
I can definitely relate that it's hard to find another good developer out there!
- http://www.evanwebde…
Sorry, don't want to pimp myself too hard here.nocomply
- http://www.evanwebde…
- ukit0
I think designers should learn these skills these days, even if it's just for prototyping stuff. Especially now that so much interactivity is possible with Javascript/ HTML, how is it any different than animating or scripting in Flash?
- The DOM and the Flash display object tree are pretty different... actually.rounce
- Having said that the speed of you average Joe's computer these days and the speed of JS VM's have really pushed it's limits.rounce
- Well, OK, it's different, I'm just saying it's not any more difficultukit
- ukit has a valid point, at least some html/css skills are very useful, especially when collaborating with a devjimbojones
- NONEIS0
I cant believe the weight most of the people here are giving CSS.
I know lots of super talented designers who can throw together a solid CSS site in no time, and make it look exactly what they want/need.CSS is not programming, it is as simple as it gets, the issue I think you are ultimately having NoFavorite, is that you need to make sure the people you hire for this sort of work, while not necessarily designers themselves, are PASSIONATE about the visual aspects of the work.
- rounce0
Shoot me an email. I'd say I was a designer who also does front-end, back-end, motion graphics, and enjoys a bit of real-time graphics programming. As has been said above it's usually about attitude rather than ability, if you don't give a shit about something you'll tend not bother, settling for the bare minimum instead.
- gramme0
I personally don't know anyone who's a conceptual and typographic expert as well as a brilliant programmer. Sure there are tons of competent designer/developer hybrids out there, but I find that if you try to be a jack of all trades, you'll be a master of none.
Asking a designer to know coding is like asking them to know how to run a printing press. It's not a necessary combination of skills, when you can find two experts who are each deeply skilled and knowledgeable in their respective crafts.
I have no knowledge of or interest in coding, beyond the strengths and limitations of various languages and platforms. I'd rather focus on what I do best and find strong collaborators to code (or print) the things I design. I don't think that makes me lazy.
- stage 1: denialjimbojones
- well said.Gucci
- so you think a print designer not understanding pantones or press vs digital is ok?zarkonite
- rounce0
Interesting but flawed point you make gramme. I've had quite a few designers come up with something and then refuse to believe that either it isn't possible within the project constraints or that the technology just won't allow it to display exactly as designed in the context of a web application.
Another point is that when a designer is also a competent programmer it tends to show in the final product in terms of overall user experience and attention to visual detail.
- identity0
Check out Renda Morton:
http://www.rumors-online.com/
- Ravdyk0
Let them put your layout as a jpg in a div with a lower z-index than the rest of the site, than let them script the site on top of that. That way they can place everything exactly as it should be.
