Should Designers and Developers Do Usability?

Having a specialized usability person is best, but smaller design teams can still benefit when designers do their own user testing and other usability work.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Design>Web Design>Professionalism>Usability

Web Designer -- And Proud of It!

The hardest part of being a professional web designer is telling people what I do for a living. The range of comments I get runs from dismissal of the web as a fad, to the ever popular, 'My fifth-grade son has his own website.' The main reason that job titles like Web GUI Designer or Web Creative get bandied about in the media and professional circles is that the term web designer carries about as much respect as paper boy in today's society.

MacGregor, Chris. List Apart, A (2001). Careers>Web Design>Professionalism

The Web Is Like Canada

Those who 'get' the web create it. Those who do not get the web are put in charge. Joe Clark presents a vision for defending our web against their worst ideas.

Clark, Joe. List Apart, A (2000). Articles>Web Design>Professionalism

You Are Not a Robot

Web design is still a young discipline, and it's generally poorly understood. As the web becomes mainstream, an increasing number of people and organizations want websites--and so more people are involved in commissioning, managing, and designing them. It's not surprising that many of these people aren't familiar with how web design works. Clients, managers, and colleagues often assume that web design is a subset of some other discipline, like advertising, graphic design, or software engineering. This creates a tendency to write it off as a low-value, straightforward process that can be streamlined and automated, like a production line. The result is unhelpful pressure on you, the web designer. You're asked to design faster, using a smaller budget, and without access to key stakeholders--which can make it difficult to maintain your professionalism, leaving everyone unhappy with the final design. The logical conclusion of this perpetual streamlining would be to stop using your judgment altogether, as if you were a piece of off-the-shelf software: a robot.

Kahn, Jonathan. List Apart, A (2007). Careers>Web Design>Professionalism

Lame Excuses for Not Being a Web Professional

Excuses that may be valid in some circumstances are too often used to cover up somebody’s lack of knowledge about modern Web design or development.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Professionalism

The Details That Matter

Creative professionals who can see all angles of a project are the ones who ultimately succeed in the industry. They win awards, get promoted, and make money, but most importantly they develop a reputation for caring about detail, for putting a personal and deliberate effort into making sure all of the tiny things are in place to make the final product perfect.

Potts, Kevin. List Apart, A (2009). Design>Web Design>Professionalism