I read this great interview with Andy Budd this morning as part of my research into usability testing. In amongst consigning CSS to history and envisioning a world dominated by Flex, I was struck by Budd’s idea that you can’t be a generalist anymore:
. . . what you need to do is specialise. I think gone are the days of the generalist, because I think that, sadly, if you’re a generalist, it does mean that you’re doing everything not to the highest possible quality.
This is true, but it doesn’t seem to stop anybody trying. Indeed, here we are encouraged to keep our fingers in many webdesign pies, rather than have the three of us dividing into specialisms. It does make you think, though: what would your specialism be? Should you choose one now and hope that it fits with who you are? Or should you wait for it to choose you (if it hasn’t already)?
What are the options for the web designer in the age of the specialist?
1. Interface designer
The word ‘interface’ includes the sense of interaction, user experience and aesthetics. Unfortunately, it implies you work on interfaces other than websites.
2. Web Developer
I could, at a stretch, choose to be a developer . . . if I knew how to program. Which I don’t.
3. CSS Guru
The days when CSS was the hot new thing are long gone, but it is probably quite a good description for what most small scale web designers actually do. If you don’t like the word guru, replace it with Monkey, which is the catch-all for people who think they are funny.
4. Web Typographer
With the current fashion for elegant typography, there may be a role for the web typographer specialism. However, all that working out em values to keep your vertical rhythm correct might give you a headache.
5. Usability Consultant
Merely calling yourself a consultant is a way to distance yourself from the nitty-gritty of markup and code. If you like doing usability testing there could be a decent niche to be had here.
6. Information Architect
All-too-often content is left to the very end of a project. Mistake! Crafting content into hierarchical structures that satisfy the eye and the accountants could be a very interesting.
7. Web Director
If you can call yourself an architect, why not a director? The director, in films and graphic design, ensures that everything comes together in a satisfactory way. It involves people management, decision making and vision.
8. New Media Designer
This one sounds suitably vague so that you can take jobs involving things like mobile site design, flash, flex and all the latest buzzwords. It also means you have to explain what you do after telling people what you do. This itself could be something you want to do, rather than have people make the assumption that you’re a bungling hobbyist as they can do when you say you’re a web designer.
9. Accessibility Consultant
This would be my absolute nightmare job. Having read accessibility reports in the past, I would hate to have to nitpick constantly about unclosed break tags.
10. Web Decorator
We hear a lot about design being more than decoration, but what if you like decoration? You could design background wallpaper and beautify the merely functional.
Let me know if you have any other suggestions. And where do you see yourself in ten years time?
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