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It sounds to me as though you might be expecting the web designer to be both a designer and a frontend developer. It's critical that any web designer knows enou

It sounds to me as though you might be expecting the web designer to be both a designer and a frontend developer. It's critical that any web designer knows enough about HTML/CSS to know the limitations of the medium and what they can design but not necessarily enough to code it. I think ideally, both the designer and frontend developer should be capable of slicing up a PSD. I'm a frontend developer, and I prefer to do that myself so I can save things in the optimal sizes and filetypes for my workflow. If the designer does it, they will be creating slices based on their opinion of how the website should be coded. I don't think the responsibility for JavaScript is a gray area at all, it falls on the developer. It becomes a gray area when you remove one of the pieces of the puzzle, the frontend developer. I also don't think your photographer analogy is fair. A photographers job can be defined as a person who takes photos. A designers job is most often defined as someone who creates designs. It sounds like you're more of a backend developer, wanting to use a designer as a designer and frontend developer. You'll probably save money and get a better result if you have the designer stick to design and higher a third-party to quickly slice and code your PSD.

willpower101 15y ago
I have to humbly disagree with this. People who don't know html and css graduate school out of the art department with Graphic Design. Go look up any decent college teaching web design - they put 2 years of emphasis on HTML & Css as well as the adobe design suite. Knowing Dreamweaver or expression web like the back of your hand is part of the curriculum.
reuven 15y ago
I'm not at all expecting the graphic designer to be a frontend developer. I've said all along that I'm happy to take care of whatever JavaScript is necessary. But there's a difference between knowing the technical side of HTML + CSS + JavaScript (which I certainly do) and being able to make a nice-looking interface that takes into account all sorts of browser issues and limitations. The fact that most designers I've met in Israel wash their hands 100% from anything Web oriented, saying that they're responsible for making PSDs and that the rest is for the programmers to handle, seems very weird to me. That said, an experienced front-end developer is always welcome on a project, and can certainly help to bridge this gap. But I really wouldn't want a front-end developer to be wasting their time making the initial HTML and CSS from PSDs. Rather, I would want them to tweak, change, and improve what the designer did, and then make a good in-browser experience that communicates with the server.

willpower101 15y ago

I have to humbly disagree with this. People who don't know html and css graduate school out of the art department with Graphic Design. Go look up any decent college teaching web design - they put 2 years of emphasis on HTML & Css as well as the adobe design suite. Knowing Dreamweaver or expression web like the back of your hand is part of the curriculum.

reuven 15y ago

I'm not at all expecting the graphic designer to be a frontend developer. I've said all along that I'm happy to take care of whatever JavaScript is necessary. But there's a difference between knowing the technical side of HTML + CSS + JavaScript (which I certainly do) and being able to make a nice-looking interface that takes into account all sorts of browser issues and limitations. The fact that most designers I've met in Israel wash their hands 100% from anything Web oriented, saying that they're responsible for making PSDs and that the rest is for the programmers to handle, seems very weird to me. That said, an experienced front-end developer is always welcome on a project, and can certainly help to bridge this gap. But I really wouldn't want a front-end developer to be wasting their time making the initial HTML and CSS from PSDs. Rather, I would want them to tweak, change, and improve what the designer did, and then make a good in-browser experience that communicates with the server.