Out of the Box
Ever wonder how websites are made? Some come out of a box and look like generic tupperware with different leftovers inside, others are brave attempts at basic html, and the ones you visit the most are created by professionals. Professionals that take the job seriously, they soldier on into the night and early mornings to bring you the best of the best, silent workers that are like the magic fairies that put the dollar under the pillow in exchange for your tooth.
Over the last ten years I have met many of these professionals and I would like to give you a simple primer on who they are and what they do.
The Project Manager
This is the head honcho, the one that leads the team. They are the go-between the client and their team. The team only meets with the Project Manager, the client is just a voice on a speaker phone from the other room. Project managers have social skills, they know how to interact with the outside world and how to keep the team working. If using a Taser was legal in the office, they would use one, but instead they use "words". They keep the project moving and hopefully on track. If not they start threatening to go to Craigslist or replace you with the guy who won't accept your Linkedin connection request.
The UI Designer
User Interface or UI for short. When you visit a site, the first thing you decide to do is where to "click". Good UI design allows you to finish the task you went to the site to do quickly and with as few clicks as possible. Bad design is like being stuck in a giant multi-tiered mall with no map and its full of screaming shoppers.
UI designers come in all stripes and colors:
Art House: They love 4 pt. type on striped backgrounds and explain the design by referring to the juxtaposition of Naturalism literature and the cartoon Ren & Stimpy. And if you look like you don't understand what they are talking about, they will just stare back at you and finish drinking their Venti Soy Latte. And when you come back with "feedback" they switch to an Emo* playlist and play with their organic cotton scarf.
Journeyman: They use one template. Right rail, pull down navigation bar, and a palette called "Ice Cream" from the Photoshop swatch list.
Mr./Ms. Happy: "I can change it, what do you like?" Their way of working is to change the design depending on who's talking to them at the moment. They are always going through an off-on again relationship, so they have this tight strained smile whenever you talk to them.
Developers/Programmers
This team member is in charge of the "backend", the engine that runs the site. They are schooled in Java, Delphi, Drupal, C+++, jquery, css, actionscript, python; all the computer languages needed to run a website. Not to be confused with a "Code Monkey"**. They will take the UI design and make it functional. Developers are a hardy breed, they run on Red Bull and corn syrup saturated high sodium fast food, they can Instant Message, Twitter, and watch YouTube and work at the same time. Most of them have hobbies where they go to the desert to blow up old cars or they collect Happy Meal toys that they hot glue to their monitors. They also fantasize about being alone with their computers, alot.
What usually goes wrong, happens here between the UI designer and the Developer. To illustrate this I will use a typical conversation between the two:
UI: here's my design, it's pretty simple, right?
Developer: (Thinking this is nothing like the wireframe***) Ah, why is the home page 3600 pixels long? And why is the registration button on the bottom?
UI: I wanted it to POP, so I just had to put in the flaming toaster background in. And put the registration button anywhere you want except here and here, and okay not there.
Developer: Is that a flash background? And are you adding audio?
UI: Yes, it's flash and there's a "crackling toast sound".
Developer: Umm, that's going to take forever to load.
UI: The client signed off on it.
Developer: ..........
This leads to a conversation outside in the parking lot between the Project Manager and the Developer, where they smoke an entire pack of cigarettes. Then the Project Manager gets a text message from the UI designer telling them that the Developer is a dolt, which leads to another pack of cigarettes across town at the designer's studio.
Quality Assurance
This person tests the beta site (beta is the test stage of a website) to see if the site does what it's supposed to do. If it doesn't they send a list back to the Project Manager, and they decide on what changes are to be made. This is the stage that brings back the UI designer and developer to the table for a long meeting over take out food and stale coffee and another pack of cigarettes. And eventually a website that you will visit and bookmark.
I hope this explains the roles people play in creating a website and helps you understand the process. It's a long road that is traveled by colorful personalities that manage to function both virtually and in a room filled with empty take out boxes.
* Emo: Emo is a broad title that covers a lot of different styles of emotionally-charged punk rock. ie. bands such as Jimmy Eat World to My Chemical Romance
** Code Monkey: a programmer that pumps out code; a code workhorse.
***Wireframe: A guide for the designer that lays out the fundamentals of the Interface.
Credits:
Danh Hoang for his insight into the male Developer's Mind
Doug Dawirs for his uncanny ability to stare back at me with a straight face. Doug is also the original developer of the asset management application Aldus Fetch (now known as Extensis Portfolio).
@AndSheSpeaks for her insight into the female Developer's mind.
And finally a big hurrah to @RPM for her inspiration this morning over her tweet "me: we shouldn't have to scroll to get to the bottom of our main page of the site. designer: that really doesn't matter. *bangs head*"
Image: Ophelia Chong / The Art of CSS
