What do you currently define yourself as a designer or a developer? To clarify that further, by developer I don’t mean that you write C#, .Net or Java I’m talking about things like Javascript, PHP, working with Ruby on Rails maybe you are a wordpress expert… You could answer “both” too.

We’ve been exploring the old idea that a good web designer is capable of writing well formed HTML/CSS and has knowledge of certain standard web building components. We performed a survey here about 8 months ago asking this question and got some pretty straight forward results, though it was just a survey of our audience and not comprehensive of all web workers to say the least, take it as you will:

We also sampled some industry veterans we had access to and got some great explanations as well:

Jay Barry – period-three.com / unmatchedstyle.com
I would define myself as what I want to be, as opposed to what I am at any point in the day, and that would be as a designer. But as someone who has only worked in small shops, I’ve been forced by necessity to be the one who figures shit out, and I think that has really honed my skills so that I can figure out how to get stuff done from start to finish, regardless of what phase of the project I have to work on (usually all phases). So even though I can dig into php and mysql and have a pretty good understanding of that, I really feel like I identify with the designer side of my self.

Jason Beaird – jasongraphix.com
At work I’m primarily a front-end developer. I still see myself as more designer than developer but I keep the line between the two intentionally blurry. I studied graphic design in college but I’ve always loved front-end coding and I know enough about .Net, PHP & Rails to troubleshoot problems and occasionally cause new ones.

Jonathan Longnecker – fortysevenmedia.com
I think we are primarily designers, from a visual and user interface perspective to well structured HTML and CSS. And yes, I consider even good HTML and CSS to be part of great design. While I wouldn’t consider us developers “per se” we use ExpressionEngine for most of our client work and it allows us to put together some pretty amazing functionality without knowing any PHP/Rails, etc. That gives us a big advantage for just about any site (other than a custom web application). 

Ultimately, we love making everything work together so the user has an amazing experience. And that almost always encompasses all aspects (design, code, javascript) so there’s always more to learn!

Brandon Easterlin – sensefortheweb.com
That is a loaded question.  Both, because both are required to sell my services.  I mostly work alone, so I have to be varied enough in both realms to produce a solution that a client will be happy with.  I suppose ideally I would consider myself a designer, which would apply to both areas in the sense that I would be guiding the message the client needs to convey via graphic design, and in forming a comprehensive functional solution via web development.

In an ideal world I would plane-out at this top-level, but in reality, at the end of the day someone has to take care of the details.  So I am in a constant struggle between supervisor and grunt worker.  I believe this fight is the bigger topic to be concerned with: Do you consider yourself a manager of design/development direction, or a blue-collar worker who produces the core of production?

Ethan Myerson – myersonphoto.com
For my whole web career, I’ve considered myself a designer/developer. This is mainly because it gives me a marketing edge. Not every designer can offer the comprehensive back-end services I can, and even more rare are the developers who can provide for the aesthetic needs of the client. By having both under one roof (and really under one hat), I can offer an edge that not many other local providers can.

Sean Rankin – internetwonderboy.com
Simple. The answer is both, kinda.

It’s taken me years, but I’ve finally come to grips with the fact that I am a software designer. I’ve always seen that role as a bridge builder, or liaison between the “business folks” and the “technical folks”. As software designers, our job is to align those business and technical  wants, needs and desires with those of the customer… And in my experience, it’s hard to appreciate all those things if you aren’t willing to wear a few different hats.

You have to understand the technology to design effective solutions, and you have to appreciate the value design of design to deliver compelling products. It’s a symbiotic in the sense that one needs the other to survive.

I think we are seeing these lines blur more and more as our industry matures. Some of the most successful web apps on the interweb right now (i.e. Facebook) did more than balance technology and design; they established that one needs the other to be successful.

I advocate hiring those “t-shaped” people who have a wealth of knowledge in one area, with interests in many areas.

Like I said, I’m a software designer… Aint nothin simple. 🙂

Trying to draw a conclusion from our research, we find that someone who is a web designer should be able to create quality visual design, take into account good user experience/usability and also have the ability to create good HTML/CSS. Someone who is a web developer should have those skills (or some set of those skills) and be able to navigate and create within some kind of development framework, whether that is PHP, Ruby on Rails or whatever. Even going as far as saying that you should be somewhat proficient in both design and development if you want to set yourself apart and create great work.

What do you have to say about this? I know you want to weigh in on this…