Recently I’ve read an article with the title „Real Developers Don’t Need Designers“. Here some guys express the opinion that for a desktop application there is no need for designers – real developers could do that job on their own. I think that even if some things are established like „OK“ and „Cancel“ are mostly arranged on the bottom… the user will recognize if a coder has tried to be a designer.
Interaction design it is a lot more than just about selecting colors and designing icons. We deal intensively with the target group and their tasks. Based on that we create the concept for the interaction with the application. The screen layout and how users can continue working in a flow is how your costumers will experience your application.
After all, there is no difference between desktop and web application.
Hi,
I in fact do agree with you. Interaction design is more of an art which combines psychology, computer science and a sense for good aesthetics. Unfortunately it is not everyones cup of tea. Developers might be able to deliver a good-enough working version with the GUI included but it does not suffice. It is a no-brainer as to why Apple manages to sell so well. I seriously doubt if that surreal user-experience could have been done by a guy who codes the iPod’s firmware. Of course I would not deny that exceptions do exist, but a specialist is after all a specialist. Be it a coder, an interaction designer or a traveling salesman.
- Shuja
I don’t agree with the strict separation designers/developers. Maybe because I never really managed to focus only on one side, just like a lot of my friends (best example being the brilliant http://www.quasimondo.com). Of course there are specialists for each field, but user interface design is no rocket science and the interested developer can quite easily gain the required knowledge. On top of that, developers work with software and computers all day long and have aquired a sense for what is a good or a bad UI. This “developers have no clue about design” is in my eyes a prejudice similar to “girls can’t drive cars”.
Here at conject not only the designers and product managers are worried about our customers and how they experience our application. That way a couple of interface improvements have been started by developers who thought that some features of our platform were somehow weird to use. So a “real developer” here doesn’t necessarily need a designer – but we are definitely glad to have them!
In my opinion there are two aspects of good interface design: Usability and aesthetics. We, as developers, are ‘heavy users’ of software and are usually able to do a decent job in creating a functional interface. There are some rules and guidelines which aren’t too hard to follow. So, while there are lots of examples for bad design in both aspects, they alone are not the reason for the need of designers. It’s the aesthetical, artistical side of design which is hard for more technically oriented people (like me). Should the background be blue, grey or green? Round or sharp edges? Bold or underlined? I don’t know – and I don’t care. But the customers often do.
Maybe you are a genius in both fields. I am not. And I believe that being an artist is something one need to be borne with. It’s something one can not learn. So I like to cooperate with good (!) designers.
Of course there is the other extreme: Interfaces created by (not so good) designers who take full artistic liberty – resulting in something nice looking but unfortunately totally unusable. (There are lot’s of these e.g. in WPF, Silverlight and Flash.) But that’s no reason against designers, only against bad designers.