I’m very lucky that I’ve been able to combine my two passions, graphic (later web) design and programming. Along the years I’ve emphasized my programming skills (because I think I’m better at it and because -let’s face it, it’s better paid) and I can tell how much my creativity as a designer has suffered. It’s like having two opposite mindsets trying to live together.

IMHO -and based in my experience, I think that if a designer knows enough about usability and about what can be achieved through programming, then it should be up to the designers to sort of dictate the guidelines of a project. It should then be up to the programmers to do a little magic and make the graphic interface work.

In the end it’s all about having a good communication as well as about investing time in learning at least the basic concepts of the other discipline.

For large projects I believe it’s essential to have a project manager proficient in both disciplines, someone that will never lose a clear vision of how the final product should be.

Good posting

That third party is the project manager who identifies, refines and sustains the need (business case) for the product which is so effectively acted on by the developer and the designer (at least as long as the need remains).

I have heard of conventional wisdom which suggests that 70% of all IT projects fail. If this is true I believe it’s because of a lack of ‘business case due diligence’ for a project. Building or identifying a business case must be an important key to all project success and it is just one essential element of the project manager’s skill.

A competent project manager generalist can effectively add this important skill to the mix and with the other essential skill of communication make everyone look very good. These facts together could eliminate the need for each individual professional to defend his or her special turf or ego. As a project manager I know I cannot do what you do nor function without your service.

The best suggestion that I can make to remedy the IT industry’s propensity for failure and ego bruising is for developers and designers to insist on enlisting the assistance of competent project managers who will sustain the business case for each project and encourage the disciplines of budget, scope, schedule, risk management, quality, and contract completion.

I also agree that programmers often misjudge how usable an interface needs to be for non-technical users. I think developers have an incredible ability to “figure out” new things and it serves them well in their profession.

Thanks for the comment.

Personally I wanted to know how close to my own opinions the author’s views were.

And I have to say that I pretty much agree with everything. I consider myself one of those “both artistic and technical” people… I’m an incredibly good coder, but besides that I do all sorts of other things, music and graphic design among them (I’ll say no more else I’d go on for aeons). I think that fundamentally I am one of those “right brained deterministic types”, but I’ve learned to make good use of that for even the completely left-brain sort of stuff.

Anyway, I’d like to add another thing to the mix…

The graphics designer’s “Does it look good?” and the IT person’s “Will it work?” are roughly parallel questions. But the answer to the first question is based on human impressions, which (practically) everyone unconsciously learns about from the moment they’re born - though the graphics designer typically has a greater understanding of this. It’s just talent, basically. On the other hand, the answer to the second question is based on unbelievably huge (to any non-programmer) stores of consciously-gained knowledge.

Those who have never amassed such a level of knowledge can’t really understand the feeling when all your work pays off, and of course have no idea of how challenging a project is.

On the flipside, the average programmer is rarely aware of how much difficulty the average human has in learning something new, and in particular something new that doesn’t look welcoming. Hence programmers aren’t picky about an interface being intuitive or aesthetic. (Doubly so when this comes at the cost of functionality!)

Now, I’m not suggesting this be the 6th thing you should know about IT people - I’m just trying to explore the ideas raised in the article.

I think the best remedy for all this is communication. Get to know the people you work with, share a few thoughts; value the input of others and give them reasons to value yours. And don’t pay too much attention to first impressions; I’ve known people who on the outside seem to be idiots, and others who seem to be bastards, but a bit of interest or a few kind words revealed a different side.

Thanks for the article.