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Designers vs. Programmers

MattMatt
edited September 2010 in Technology
So over the past few days, I have been working with my designer friend to set up a Vanilla 2 forum for our site, and we encountered a pretty humorous situation about graphic designer vs. tech person. In the current build, the AJAX username and email address validation used during registration is broken. As users type in their info, some red text will pop up under the field saying "name unavailable" or "address unavailable". Sure, if you click the "OK" button it will still let you register, and if the name is actually taken you'll get an error, but that red error text will probably discourage most people from registering.

My solution: go find the function calls for this validation in the registration javascript file and comment them out
The designer's solution: find the error text in the CSS file and make it invisible to the user

Comments

  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    That's less a difference in logic and more to do with what tools you know how to use.
  • AprecheApreche
    Designers should only be concerned with how something looks. If it's an issue of functionality, they have nothing to do with it.
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Designers should only be concerned with how something looks. If it's an issue of functionality, they have nothing to do with it.
    That is so much bullshit, I'm not even going to start to argue.
  • AprecheApreche
    That is so much bullshit, I'm not even going to start to argue.
    How is it bullshit? If you're making software and something is functionally broken, then you have to fix it on the backend. A designer can only fix it on the front end, which is always the wrong place to fix it. The front end is just a face for the user to interact with the back. Yes, there can be bugs in the front end for the designer to fix, but if so, they are simply errors with display and the functionality is actually intact. If somehow your front and back are not independent of each other, then you did it wrong.
  • LyddiLyddi
    How about finding out why its broken?
    I usually never comment on stuff like this, but I have had to make waaay too many javascript error checking forms not to say anything.

    First of all, making the text invisible is a retarded solution. I'm sure that text is needed for other errors as well. Not showing users important errors is a big no no, unless you want to confuse and frustrate them. Commenting the functions out is a better solution, however you will eventually need that functionality anyway, so why not fix it? Unless for some reason you are not in the situation to fix it for some reason.
    Designers should only be concerned with how something looks. If it's an issue of functionality, they have nothing to do with it.
    That is so much bullshit, I'm not even going to start to argue.
    Hmm... I guess if you are a "pure" designer, then all you are doing is making Photoshop/Illustrator designs and sending them off to the developer/whatever. However, your designs will suck and be hard to implement if you know nothing about website functionality and how your designs will work.

    On a related note... What kind of separation do people place between designer, developer, and programmer? When I try to explain my job, I call myself a developer, but then people think I am a programmer and ask me to do a bunch of crazy programming and database stuff. What I actually do is either design a site (in that since I am a designer) or take an existing design from our other designer, and then do all of the HTML/CSS and whatnot. I do pretty much all of the javascript (though nothing extremely complicated) where needed, all the Flash (yeah I know, Flash is horrible, but clients really want it :P), etc. One of our "programmers" will step in when we need some kind of php database functionality. The most php I've worked with is in Wordpress. I guess I am just frustrated because when companies or whoever advertise for someone to make their website, they all want one person to do everything. -_- So its really hard for me to find freelance work that fits me. Blargh.
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    I think both solutions are valid, but the one you choose really depends on how "fixed" you want the problem. The programming solution is actually fixing the source problem, while the design solution is more just throwing a rug over it.
  • trogdor9trogdor9
    I think both solutions are valid
    I don't. What if there's a real error? It will have invisible text and the user will have no idea what to do.
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    I think both solutions are valid
    I don't. What if there's arealerror? It will have invisible text and the user will have no idea what to do.
    Like I said, it's the difference between actually fixing the problem and throwing a rug over it.
  • ......
    My solution: go find the function calls for this validation in the registration javascript file and comment them out
    The designer's solution: find the error text in the CSS file and make it invisible to the user
    Sounds more like two idiots 'solving' a problem the easiest way they know. Although arguably commenting the validation calls out is the better 'solution'.
  • MrRobotoMrRoboto
    I think both solutions are valid, but the one you choose really depends on how "fixed" you want the problem. The programming solution is actually fixing the source problem, while the design solution is more just throwing a rug over it.
    It's better to comment it out than "hide it" as some screen readers for the disabled tend to read it anyways.
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    I think both solutions are valid, but the one you choose really depends on how "fixed" you want the problem. The programming solution is actually fixing the source problem, while the design solution is more just throwing a rug over it.
    It's better to comment it out than "hide it" as some screen readers for the disabled tend to read it anyways.
    IOW: Some people will notice the lump under the carpet.
  • MattMatt
    First of all, making the text invisible is a retarded solution.
    This is pretty much why I made this thread. I know my solution was slightly better yet not truly a fix. Just got a laugh out of the hiding being the first thing that popped into his head.
    Sounds more like two idiots 'solving' a problem the easiest way they know. Although arguably commenting the validation calls out is the better 'solution'.
    Unlike most people on the internet I don't think I am God's gift to whatever I am doing. Programming is not my profession, and I don't have the desire to self-teach my way to excellence, so I am not going to attempt to do something I have very little chance of success at (fixing a bug in the Vanilla code). There are much smarter people than I working on that.

    It's not really a major bug, it's just a pre-notification that's permanently returning one of two results (the name is taken). It exists to discourage people from wasting their time and clicking "OK" only to get the real error message and having to fill out the form again b/c the username actually was taken. Since it's just a minor convenience feature, and taking it out won't actually stop the system from preventing people from registering with duplicate names, I said take the shit out till it's fixed in a later release.
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