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+---- Thread: Web Designer VS Web Developer (/showthread.php?tid=4293202)
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* - ~Dec - Jun 20, 2014
I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than just web designers or web developers. There was a time where these were the two different titles, but times have changed. Now, we have this:
Designer - a designer is not always just a web designer. The designer's job is to prototype wireframes for websites, webapps, desktop applications and mobile apps. The designer's job may also include creation of the image assets and marketing campaign assets for various products using multiple tools. It is mostly a vector-based workflow using tools like Illustrator / InDesign / Sketch / Pixelmator, but for slight cleanup or photographic edits Photoshop is used as well. In rare cases, tools like Maya3D or Cinema4D are also used. The designer hands these assets to the UX engineer and the Front-End Developers.
Interaction designer - like a designer, but focuses on "wow" factor. The interaction designer will communicate with the UX engineer and the designer and build prototype "interactions", for example, animations between app page transitions.
UX engineer - or "User Experience Engineer" works in tandem with both the front-end developers and back-end developers to ensure that the experience the user receives while using the product is a hassle and pain-free one. The UX engineer makes the calls for stuff to change when he/she feels that the user experience is simply not good enough. He/she is responsible for ensuring that user actions are reduced to as few steps as possible, that everything is optimized for a fast experience, that buttons are big enough to be tapped on, that the website is good for both search engines and people with disabilities, that no options are hidden from the user, that items always show state, and a hell of a lot more. It's probably one of the toughest jobs, because it requires a much more advanced subset of the same skills a front-end developer has, with the eye for design a designer has, the conceptual understanding of performance benefits and disadvantages of a backend-developer and an extreme attention to detail. (I am a UX engineer IRL - and I can tell you it's a tough job but very worth it if you harness the required skills). The UX engineer will use the same tools a front-end developer uses. It is similar to a full-stack workflow because it involves tweaking both the client and server for optimal performance both in speed and flow.
Front-End developer - the front end developer is responsible for communicating between the designers and back-end developers and building the design into a product that uses the design, integrates the interactions and back-end functions, while following the rules of good user experience. The tools of a front-end developer consist of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, but more often the Front-End developer will harness tools like CSS preprocessors, templating engines, JavaScript transpilers and build systems to make their job a little easier.
Back-End developer - a back end developer will build the business logic of the product, using a server side or compiled language or combination of any of these two. They communiate with the UX and front-end engineers to tweak server performance and explain to the front-end guys what's going on behind the scenes so they get a better understanding of what should be going on on the front end.
Full Stack Developer - these are common and rare at the same time. There are two types of full stack developer - a jack of all trades, master of none - and a highly skilled, knowledgeable and experienced in every field of technology. The first kind usually act as step-ins for the rest of the developers on sick days, while the second kind retain positions of entitlement like Chief Technology Officer, as they know all of the required components for the product and are experienced enough to provide guidance to the rest of the team on the aim of the product and the technologies that should be used to reach that goal.
There are a plethora of other involved titles, like marketing executives, project managers, product managers, and so on, but those are out of the scope of this explanation as they do not actually build the product, they instead give the orders for the requirement of the product or give it some exposure.
* - Tasemu - Jun 20, 2014
Dec has pretty much got it spot on when you go into detail on the matter. ^^
* - Makaveli. - Jun 20, 2014
Thanks for clearing this up OP! I always got confused about this.
* - JumpWar - Jun 20, 2014
Dec put it nicely though I allways prefer "Usability Engineer" over "USer Experience Engineer" as that is the longer standing term. (UX sounds cooler)