In defense of a web designer

What is the role of a web designer? Is he a one-man army, how much does web designer needs to learn and what are the difference between graphic and web designer?

Who wins – a graphic or web designer?

There are very many articles already written on the subject of Graphic vs. Web design, the pros and cons of both and various comparison charts can be found all over the web in all the glory that numbers and percentages can describe. Needless to say – not one of this articles ever ended with a definite and absolute winner. For a simple reason as well. There can’t be a winner as it is not really a competition to start with anyway.

There are very many articles already written on the subject of Graphic vs. Web design, the pros and cons of both and various comparison charts can be found all over the web in all the glory that numbers and percentages can describe. Needless to say – not one of this articles ever ended with a definite and absolute winner. For a simple reason as well. There can’t be a winner as it is not really a competition to start with anyway.

Though I can not speak much from a Graphic designer POV as I didn’t stick around long enough in the industry for my experience to be of any real value, I was however given an insight into the design processes and the overall philosophy of how a valuable piece of graphic design is created from the scratch. As far as web design goes, things are a bit different here and I can freely speak from the point of rich experience, so naturally the main focus of this article will be strongly centered on the design for web audiences. Firstly we need to understand that apart form the apparent technical differences in this two industries, the main differentiation of the two is made before the first pixel is ever thrown at the canvas.

The approach of a graphic designer

If a graphic design team is presented with a challenge of creating an advertisement that needs to represent a new product on the market, or even an entirely new brand, they would start their work by researching the market segment that is targeted by this particular product. This would be normally done in a highly professional and methodical fashion that draws not only from the past experiences but also from the well known industry preset list of “things that work” for a particular audience. Namely, the color selection, typography, symbolism and overall look&feel of the advertisement, whatever it may be, will be the same old abuse drawn from a large pool of already present knowledge that attracts the targeted market segment like a scoped rifle. The success of such advertisement largely depends on the market research and its accuracy, and subsequently the individual skills of a design team in question.
Now, much of what I said above can also be applied to web design creation process almost to the letter, as web design, being a much younger industry, sees graphic design as a knowledgeable parent from whom it is supposed to learn the basics and use them as a jump of point from which to stem and grow further into the unknowns of the almighty interwebs.
As I said – the above applies to both, but with web design, the approach doesn’t end at market research. Instead, as a very dynamic industry web design is, the real work is just about to begin.

The approach of a web designer

A web designer can’t afford to be a designer only. Instead, web designer must also be the master of current technologies and tools of trade used in the process of creation as well as the future ones, as far as the perceivable future is in question. I’m not talking about the software versions here. I’m talking about the phenomenon of the internet and it’s evolution towards becoming an irreplaceable part, not just of our lifestyles, but life on earth in general.

Web learns from itself, accepts the lessons learned, moves on to outgrow itself, and then proceeds to repeat this growth cycle all over again. And again. Indefinitely. No signs of stopping anytime soon.

Good web designer is fully aware of this fact, and does not depend blindly on the past and what worked well a year, or even a month ago. Instead, a good web designer is in a constant struggle to find that which will be the next style of design, the next big trend in web technology, the next big thing that the audiences demand to have, and proceeds to learn it, thus empowering the principles and techniques used in the design process.

The web designer

Web designer must be a decent coder. There is no way around it if one aims to design a perfect user experience. Some designers no longer use design applications to create an entire design, but instead, they design directly into browsers using HTML, CSS and JavaScript to breathe life into their designs and to test them out at the spot. They have nothing against good Photoshop/Illustrator designs though, they, evolved above the limitations of the software and realized it is slowing them down quite a bit. They still use software to create complex graphics, icons and other UI elements of course, but going “all in” and later seeking a front end developer to code it up is a step too much I’m afraid. It takes toll on the clock, energy of the team and subsequently the project budget. Web design appreciates foresight much more then anything else, so being able to learn new things on almost daily basis is a must for a good web designer.

Web design is about creating experiences, not candy wrapping products.

It is quite safe to say that a web designer grows the web and grows with the web and that the web grows as he/she does. It’s all about the growth.
Things that worked just a few months ago may become obsolete before the project is even launched. No symbol is sacred. No technique is permanent. Nothing is still. It is chaotic. A pure creative chaos.
A good web designer is a one-man army, and wouldn’t want to have it any other way.
For those of you who like to play numbers and percentages here’s a nice infographic on the subject: http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/design/blog/graphic-design-vs-web-design/