@leemunroe asked today:
Quick question for web designers: When someone asks you “What do you do?” what is your reply? e.g. web designer, ux designer, webmaster…
I see a lot of buzz online about this recently..
For some time the ‘online world building business’, as I call it, has been getting more complicated and developing into more disctinct specialisms. But..
On one side there are clients and for most this is all quite too complicated. Most clients, not all of course, still end up with the inevitable ‘so you design websites, right?’
The other side – the industry, seems to be asking the question now too. Personally, i don’t think any of the online jobs can, and do, exist in a vacuum: they are all interlinked and to be an expert in one you need solid knowledge of the others. I usually describe what I do as ‘user experience design’. But that is sometimes down to the project I work on, depending on the size and extensity I act as the designer + information architect + project manager in one. If the project is more advanced you need to fill in all those roles separately, but they are intertwined and all of these experts will interact and influence each other. Moreover, having knowledge in all web production areas definitely helps in becoming better at your specialism. Great article about Homo Universalis here.
