I take most of my inspiration from the solo developer designers I find on sites like Awwwards. In my experience over the years, developing and designing a site has always been intimately woven although professionally that’s far from the truth in 2016. However “to what extent?” is what I’m wondering. Here’s some examples of developer/designers:
I posted a related question elsewhere about job titles. I’m not asking that here. Instead I just wonder if anyone notices professional opportunities out there for developer/designers. It’s what I’m aspiring for because I simply enjoy both and enjoy limited projects focused on presentation (not interested in e-commerce or applications).
So has anyone ever come across these types of hybrid roles in their professional lives?
This diagram was presented on my last post, regarding job titles. Sure this diagram exists. If UI developer is the title for this hybrid role I describe then let me refine my question: do you ever see UI developer roles out there?
I thought I had posted it recently. I didn’t realize it was to you.
Yes. Another word for them is Frontend Developer, which is probably more common than “UI Developer”.
Titles don’t really matter. I’m a Frontend Developer, my official title that I am paid based on is Systems Analyst. People at work call me a “GUI Developer”, I call myself a Software Developer/Engineer. It’s all the same. UI/UX Engineer/Developer/Designer/Whatever, is a growing field I think.
Alright. If I may ask, is more of your professional work regional? In my area of Los Angeles CA, most front-end work that I come across through recruiters is 100% engineering, 0% design. Maybe it’s regional or maybe it’s related to the recruiters I communicate with.
No, it’s not a regional thing. There are not a lot of jobs in my region (South/Midwest). I just build the frontend to web applications. It’s mostly engineering, but psychology and design come to play a lot with designing how things should work or function.
@rpeg Hello,
From my experience (18+ years) I have seen this role or designer/developer quite often in my professional career. In fact, I’m living it. I work for a large global company in the SouthEast US, and I have been in that role most of my career (with various large to small companies). Developing half the time and designing the other. From my perspective, desire for this position (from the enterprise side) stems from the structure of the organization, leadership, and vision. Smaller companies prefer the jack of all trades or a multitasker, because of cost or various reasons. Larger companies may have similar reasons, but from my experience has mainly been because of business structure, culture, or lack of creative/developer resources in the area. Regardless of the reasons, there is still a high demand for this hybrid. I will say that UI/UX development is another world in itself. Yes, it takes elements from the dev and design world, but I don’t see them as the same.
