But what I'm getting at is most UI Designer jobs that I see today are looking for advanced javascipt, advanced flash, and advanced jquery experience. How can a company expect somebody to be this advanced as a coder and also do UI design, etc.
I consider a designer and developer two very different trades. I no of no professional developers who are equally talented in design -- at least none recognized by the designer gurus and development gurus. They use different sides of the brain don't they?
Anyways, the problem is, designers often by requirement get forced into learning a little JS because backend/server side developers have enough on their plate when building professional high quality applications. Security, architecture, standards, testing, etc. I almost always request someone else handle the front end, JS programming, etc. I also suggest that designers stay doing nothing but design, as they rarely make good developers and visa-versa.
A designer does (perhaps more accurate to say new media producer):
- Maya (3D modelling)
- Photoshop
- QuarkXpress
- Illustrator (icons)
- Flash (with basic scripting at the most)
- Traditional print
That is a lot to learn already but all within the same boundries of what ia required by most businesses. Sadly all to often I see many advertise XHTML, accessibility, usability, JS, SQL, PHP, Perl. When I see that on an application or requirement list I toss it in the trash immediately.
Client side developers would encompass:
- XHTML/HTML/CSS
- Accessibility/Usability
- JavaScript/jQuery/Mootools
- Image slicing
- Smarty/template engine or similar
- Basic PHP knowledge incase the template engine is alternative syntax
Server side developers would ideally have:
- Extensive PHP, LAMP experience
- Frameworks (Zend, SYmphony, CodeIgnitor, etc)
- Strong focus on security, standards, patterns
The list goes on for each of the three departments but the all have distinct responsibilities, IMO, which all to often get blurred togather and cause confusion and headaches for everyone involved.
Where a server side developer has to stay somewhat on top of security exploits and different systems like Debian, Redhat, Windows, Linux...a client side developer has to do something very similar with keeping up with cross browser issues and all the caveats. A designer has to stay in touch with the rapidly changing designs. Look at the sites of the late 1990's compared to today and web 2.0 designs. It almost saddens me when I see web sites with an nasty circa 1990's design. Then you look at jQuery and it's plesant gradients, rounded corners, nifty icons and color matching. That is a talent all in its own. Makes me envious
They want everything in one person which means they won’t get quality in some of these areas or are UI Designers actually learning Javascript, JQuery, and Actionscript? I mean are you learning to become an advanced coder to get a UI Designer job
I'm a developer through and through...my interest is in systems analysis and architecture...I can't even draw stick men.
I think the terms 'designer' and 'developer' are vague and even when prceeded by an noun like 'software' or 'interface' it's still not totally clear. Which is why it's so important during the interview to establish exactly what it is your capable of doing and most importantly what your passionate about.
I thought XHTML was sort of a dead end and everything was going HTML5?
For some perhaps, I'm sticking with XHTML for the foreseeable future and gradually implementing HTML5 templates so client can switch dynamically as they see fit.
Do people still do this now that you can float and position images?
LOL...I used the wrong term...I think I meant image 'slicing' basically taking a complete PSD layout from a designer and cutting it into small optimized pieces and positioning them with CSS, etc.
Cheers,
Alex