Changing Nature of Design
by Heather Champ
Given that the this thing called new media, or perhaps a more apt definition recently quipped by a friend "the industry formerly known as 'new'," seems hell-bent to continue at this breakneck speed, it's interesting to look around and take stock of what being a "Web designer" entails.The easy answer, or at least the quickest, is at this moment there is more to being a designer than having a swift hand with Photoshop. This is not to say that a toolbox skill-set including a vast arsenal of applications, languages, etc., is enough to ensure a place at the table wedged in between the likes of Roger Black and David Siegel.
What makes one site or one designer stand head and shoulders above the rest? With every introduction of a new technology the stakes become higher, the possibilities more varied, and given the seemingly exponential growth, the field more crowded. Given the democratic nature of the Web, it's true that every site has the same voice, but the budgetary differences ensure that some voices are much louder than others. (I should preface this broad statement that to even have reached the point of being online, one must have a computer, modem, credit card, or checking for the ISP, etc., which somewhat raises the bottom line from a universal inclusion.)
Like any other industry there are a multitude of individuals who have their own opinion, and the beauty of the Web is that all of these people have the opportunity to voice these opinions. Unlike broadcast or print, it's far easier to create a site or a page in response that will presumably have more traffic than a single call or letter to the editor.
Collaboration
While it was once possible for one person to "do it all," perhaps with the exception of more laborious CGI scripting, now more than ever it seems that collaboration is becoming the nature of the game. It's impossible to be everything and do it well. It's much more rewarding to work with equally as talented individuals who bring a different group of skills to the relationship. But while this sounds like a reasonable idea it can be difficult to achieve.
The industry itself can impede the collaborative process as production methods are developed and perfected. Given that the Web is "interactive" and strives to push through two dimensions, it's rather strange that a number of sites are initially contrived in Quark with an image of a browser window strung around the outside by designers who may or may not take the rather quirky nature of HTML into consideration.
These layouts are then handed off to production with the understanding that the end product will look like flat files. While flat files can be helpful for determining the look and feel of a project, it's rather difficult to imagine how it's possible that the envelope of possibility may have been pushed to the "nth" degree.
Collaboration is really becoming more a necessity, although it's not always easy. Designers can be suspicious of "tech" people, and vice versa. And it's fair to say that designers are an undervalued commodity. Initially providing services more akin to frosting a cake and contorting HTML in ways for which it was never intended, there is perhaps a growing respect for our skills given the realization that it's the fine interweaving of both design and technology that result in a superior product.
