We’re Not Web Designers
One of the biggest misconceptions about designers (and usually Web
designers) is that we’re just Web designers — that the scope of our skills
begins with Lorem ipsum and ends with HTML emails. This is ridiculous.
Everyone in this industry fills dozens of roles throughout a given day. On a
call with a prospective client, we take the role of salesperson. After the
contract is sorted, we become researchers, combing through the client’s
outdated website, looking at analytics and identifying breakdowns and
room for improvement. Soon after, we become content curators, wading
through the piles of content in PDF format sent by the client, identifying
what works and what doesn’t.
Then we’re architects, laying out content to get the most important
messages across, while ensuring that everything in our layouts remains
findable. We design the website itself. We manage client expectations and
work through revisions. We write code. We introduce a content
management system. We carefully insert and style content. We create and
update the brand’s presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We help to
create an editorial calendar to keep content fresh and accurate. We check in
on the analytics and metrics to see how the website is performing.
Notice that “design” is mentioned only once in all of that work.
Yo u h a ve o n l y to l o o k a t t h e to p i c s c o ve re d o n w e b s i te s s u c h a s F re e l a n c e
Switch and Smashing Magazine to see the range of roles we fill. We’re used
to adapting and changing. And as the Web adapts and changes, Web
designers follow suit. Just as video didn’t kill the radio star, Twitter won’t kill
the original website.