Who do you think has the hardest job?

I've heard arguments that programmers do more work than designers, that programming is harder than designers. But on the flipside if designing was so easy, why can't programmers do their own design work?

Throw in your opinions folks, I've also made this a poll, so be kind enough to vote on it

Well, I think both need each other. Without the programmer, the design wouldn't work..... would be static. Without the designer, the program would look plain, like command line.

I think if both the programmer and designer were good, both of them would work equaly hard to get the job done correctly. However, I'm a designer...... so I think I do more work :D

Been gone over in various forms before:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40183

As well as here:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=80909

Where I said:

Anyone cna sit and learn how to copy code out of a book and make it work by fixing the three erronous lines, but how many people can sit down and in a month pop out a basic word processor? Or how many people can write a custom shopping cart in ASP from scratch in 3 weeks? Those are programmers.

People who can copy lines form here and there and move slowly through arent programmers. Just like poeople who make a smiley face in paint arent either. There are many people who say they are programmers but arent.

I dont think much has changed since the discussion found in those two threads.

Search is a nice tool.

Web design is a form of art. Even a computer-technical novice could design a nice looking web site without using much logic. I believe programmers have to use both sides of the brain when doing their work.

Those threads are more orientated towards money, I'm talking about who works harder.

The search is a great tool, but none of those threads are after what I want to know. Anyway, which option did you vote for? Being a designer, I voted for my trade :)

Since when does what you do dictate how hard you work? Are you saying if you are a programmer that you automatically work harder than someone else, simply based on the fact that you write code all day?

Thats like saying all nurses work harder than all waitresses.

Gross generalizations usually aren't the best thing, especially on something as subjective as this. Especially when someone might get a tiny insulted at being called (relatively speaking) lazy.

EDIT: Just beucase someone works harder doesnt mean they do more work. How much work one does is dependant on not only how effeicient they work, but also teh smount of time spent working and their workload.

I agree, this isn't a biased opinion (since I'm a designer)-- But I chose a Programmer.

Anyone has a good eye of design (many novices can distinguish a good-designed website from a bad one). But how many can distinguish a good script from a bad one with no experience?

But another thing I have to mention is that a designer doesn't just slap on a couple images on Photoshop. Serious designers delve deep into usability conditions, designing for handicapped users, etc.

I guess it all depends on how you define it. I'm a designer, but have limited knowledge in programming. To me, it isn't hard to sit down with some markers and a pad of paper and sketch out some awesome designs and layouts. I have a visual eye and have been doing design for quite a few years.

The problem for me is translating the design digitally. Physically pieceing together the HTML, digitizing the graphics to look right, etc etc. To me that is cumbersome and tedius work which I find harder than designing.

But there is also the flip side. I know people who know html and php like the back of their hand. They can write me a custom script in a matter of a half hour that I would have struggled for a few weeks with. So to them, that isn't work. But give them a pencil and paper, tell them to come up with a useable design, plesant color scheme, etc and they may have a very hard time with that.

So its just one of those things that go hand and hand. Can't have one without the other. There are a few very talented people out there who can do both aspects of the work, but for most of us it is one or the other. So I don't know if you can really quantify who does more work.

Originally posted by smidwap
Web design is a form of art. Even a computer-technical novice could design a nice looking web site without using much logic. I believe programmers have to use both sides of the brain when doing their work.
Design isn't just art. You have to consider your user interface, accessibility and more. A bad web designer will think of it as just art, but it's so much more.


You can't really say one works harder than the other. Sometimes there will be a tough programming job with only a simple design, others a require a complex design but simple coding. You cannot say one "works harder" than the other.

I agree with a lot of peoples' statements: neither programmers nor designers "work harder" than the other. Or, at least, not the good ones.

It's true that there's creativity needed for both jobs, and that both jobs need to take the end user of the site/program into account (which so many don't seem to do...but that's another rant for another time). Each of them is art: left-brain (design) and right-brain (programming). There's as much art involved in finessing an elegant software or coding solution as there is in creating a page or site that is both useful and attractive. I am more of a programmer than a designer - that's very easy to see by a quick visit to my site - but I also have a very minimalist personal design aesthetic. Even if I were more of an artistic designer, my design probably wouldn't vary much.

It's possible to be a pure designer or a pure programmer, but in Internet application / software design, it helps to at least know the overarching concepts of both halves: left-brain art and right-brain art.

Originally posted by Dogma
Design isn't just art. You have to consider your user interface, accessibility and more.

*cough*flashsucks*cough*xhtmlcss*cough*

Programmers do more work

as the results of the poll, so flamboyantly tell us!

Programmers do more work ;).

Anyone who's good at his trade will work hard.


Here's what I do know. I've done more programming work than designing work. But that's not the question ;)

I still stay programmers do more work. They have to test..fix errors etc.

Depends on the person, i really enjoy doing both (although my skils might be limited) and don't look at it as being work.

I didn't vote because it's a tie to me.

:beer:

Hmmm....well, I'm a programmer, but I sure feel like I'm doing a lot more work when I'm trying to make a design than when I'm writing a program. Therefore:

Programmers do more work when they're trying to be designers.

:cool:

Richard

Its simple really... its only "work" when your doing something that you don't enjoy :)

designers. they have to come up with these bright ideas that make the site stand out.

both jobs are hard...depends on the person....you got these people who call themselves programmers...because they can rip a prog out of a book or something....real programming (none of this RAD crap) takes alot of problem solving skills...designers need artistic talent...so it goes both ways...I'd rather have a useful dynamic site, than a plain static site that looked pretty.....

not really a fair poll. i guess id class myself as a programmer, i know that when ive worked with designers theyve worked just as hard as i do. they have more periods where theyre seeking inspiration i guess but they work just as hard. both are hard jobs in different ways.

lol after experiencing rad and jrad and dsdm in my first degree i agree they should be shot and burned and hung drawn and quartered. knocking up a program in delphi in two weeks because you time boxed out 45 weeks for arsing about is not programming. horrid hateful thing.