Designers vs. Programmers, Calling a Truce
By Molly E. Holzschlag
The "personality gap" between programmers and designers is really a matter of perception. Unfortunately, the idea that artists only design and techies only program limits the productivity of today's Web teams.
Our education often teaches us that we are either creative or scientific, and never the twain shall meet. Employers extend that model, separating artistic duties from technical tasks. But how employees identify themselves significantly impacts the production process. Pigeonholing them isn't an effective way to produce quality work.
Changes in Web technologies—especially the shift toward XHTML and XML—are forcing designers to think more like programmers and vice versa. This has created a growing movement to redefine and refine working roles. A recent conversation on Simon St. Laurent's XHTML-L list inspired a stream of fascinating posts from list denizens. The discussion centered on personality types, how specific personalities approach problems in their design and development work. The thread got me thinking.
The Problem with Stereotyping
The transition from HTML to XML via XHTML has made Web markup more abstract. This presents a challenge for designers who don't know how to work with conceptual markup. In the tradition of the debate over open source versus proprietary platforms, passionate feelings about markup are emerging.
XML is now strongly entrenched in both the present and future of Web design, and that has gotten designers' attention.
