[Sigia-l] "Devignders"?

[Christopher Fahey]

Ziya, you are ahead of the game again:
  http://www.google.com/search?q=devignder
  (as of 9:30 am EST, I get zero results)

My initial reaction to the term was fairly cynical -- we in the web world have relied on polymath designer/developers since HTML first caught on over a decade ago. We've even evolved specilized names for them, for example "design technologists". Our contemporary pantheon of CSS-based design gurus who swim in both HTML and Photoshop attests to this crossover (it's not even entirely accurate to call such talent "crossover", as the disciplines are utterly intertwined for many advanced practicioners). The words designer and developer have long been utterly interchangeable for many web design professionals. The deep history of Flash/ActionScript designer/coders also embodies this tradition. The fact that the Windows Live team thinks they're so clever about this or that they've invented a whole new kind of practicioner only makes them seem way behind the times.

Then I thought to myself, hey, this is *Windows*, they're not web people, they're desktop software people.

Then I realized that Windows Live is, in fact, a web-centric product -- apparently still mired in traditional app-based thinking. Web designers still have many lessons to learn from desktop app traditions, of course, but the idea that designers can be developers, and vice versa, is certainly not one of them.

Anyway, the word itself is a linguistic atrocity. Please let's put it to rest.

-Cf

Christopher Fahey
____________________________
Behavior
http://www.behaviordesign.com
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646.338.4002 mobile 

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org 
> [mailto:sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On Behalf Of Ziya Oz
> Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 4:32 AM
> To: SIGIA-L
> Subject: [Sigia-l] "Devignders"?
> 
> "People who spend half their time in developer tools and half 
> their time in design tools² are internally called by 
> Microsoft "devignders," according to John Richards of the 
> Windows Live team.
> 
> Would you ever use "devignder" to label yourself, if you fit 
> the description?
> 
> ----
> Ziya
> 
> In design, interaction is the last resort.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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