What’s webdesign for you?

[fastpurplemedia]

Hello fellow coders and web designers.
I understand that there are a lot of professional webdesigners on this forum. I want to know what is web designing for you?

[Anonymous]

Someone who designs the look and feel of a website. I don’t understand how there can be web designers who aren’t web developers. I would think that if you know either one, you must know the other.

[chrisburton]

I agree with @Jarolin on the point that, there’s no reason why a web designer shouldn’t know the basics of HTML and CSS. It’s important when considering what to implement.

Now, I disagree with @Jarolin that all web design is, is designing the “look and feel” of a website. That’s a very small part of what a web designer does and probably goes without saying.

A web designer is a creator to solving problems in a way to supply the user with clear information. There’s research that goes into this. A web designer is not someone who sits in Photoshop all day. There’s real problem solving that is involved.

[CrocoDillon]

> Someone who designs the look and feel of a website.

I agree with this part but not the other. Developing, to me, is programming. A lot of web designers know JS, maybe some PHP, MySQL and stuff. But there are developers who never need to design anything, and just program in back-end languages some designers might even never have heard of like JavaEE or Scala.

So most designers are part developer, but not the other way around.

[CrocoDillon]

> A web designer is a creator to solving problems in a way to supply the user with clear information. There’s research that goes into this. A web designer is not someone who sits in Photoshop all day. There’s real problem solving that is involved.

You could argue that those problems are solved by the look and feel.

[chrisburton]

> You could argue that those problems are solved by the look and feel. – @CrocoDillon

Can any of you express what “look” and “feel” represents?

[CrocoDillon]

> Can any of you express what “look” and “feel” represents?

I can’t speak for Jarolin but I was under the impression that he meant interactivity by ‘feel’.

[chrisburton]

A whole bunch of stuff! =)

Things I’d say are included (not a comprehensive list):

• Colour scheme
• Typography
• Branding (partly the two above)
• Photos/graphics/icons
• Ambiance/Mood: individual elements, overreaching design element (for instance box-shadows, rounded corners, gradients, lack-thereof, etc)
• Specification about what happens when the user interacts with various elements

Those are all decisions that should be based on research. Which brings me back to my initial response that those are all very small parts to being a Web Designer.

[unasAquila]

“Webdesign” for me is the combination and interaction of the programming and creative teams, both side design for the web and by working together can produce an experience that is new and possibly ground breaking.

[Rohithzr]

A good Web design according to me is like a design so simple and pure that the user never notices it while working, and could find whatever he/she needs in an instant.

and any web designer who is able to create such a design is a hats off designer.

But that’s just me.

[chrisburton]

@Melindrea

> Since this is in text, it’s occasionally hard to know people’s tone, so I’ll preface it with saying that I see this as “discussion” rather than “argument”.

I’m not understanding where you’re coming from or trying to say here? There is nothing wrong with a healthy debate (I don’t consider this an argument).

> I’m curious to know what kind of title you’d give to the designer in my team? Basically[…]

Basically? You mean, that’s all he does? No research? I think the “title” question is irrelevant as you should be asking, “what could he be doing wrong?”.

[chrisburton]

So if the client has an existing website where you’re redesigning it, there’s no research of the analytical data? There’s no research about the target audience?

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