As the web increasingly evolves at a speed many companies are failing to keep up with, more and more companies are outsourcing the design and development of their websites.
However, with the boundaries of design and development also in constant flux – finding the perfect marriage between designers and developers is getting harder – though not impossible.
Design has always been perceived to be the more artistic and creative of the two fields but, in a world where coding has become so important in the functionality of design, developers have every right to call themselves artists, too. Also, the nuances and artistry of each craft demands different skills and, such is that demand, design and development are both becoming very specialised disciplines.
You can’t just be a designer anymore – you have to be a user-experience designer, a visual designer, an interaction designer, or one of the many other titles designers brand themselves with nowadays.
Equally, developers can’t just be developers anymore. They have to specialise in front end development, back end, full stack, iOS or Android.
Therefore, whilst many individuals used to branch out, many even performing the role of designer and developer in many of their projects, the increasing and constantly changing demands of each discipline means specialisation is the key.
Once the principle of specialisation is accepted, the need for collaboration and teamwork becomes an obvious one – with developers and designers having to work in tandem to design and develop the types of websites that consumers currently demand. Much of this demand centres on making websites user friendly, which in today’s world means they must also be mobile friendly.
One way in which many specialist designers and developers have embraced this need for collaboration and teamwork is to become part of a Digital Media Agency, falling under the umbrella of a one-stop digital shop which companies can come to for all their web design and web development needs. Companies can then be comfortable in the knowledge that they will be working with a team of specialists whose sole goal is to provide customers with websites that will bring their business to the cutting edge of technology – and get them one-step ahead of their competition.
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