Designers and Coders; Two different Careers

When are companies going to realize the best designers are not coders and the best coders are not designers? 

The company I do interaction design for thinks how it should be. They do not require designers to be coders too. Your either The Best at one thing or ok at everything. For my career path, I choose to be the best at what I do, design by the way. I do just want to clear up that I do know a bit of code; to the ability to create a iPhone application. Just that it would not be as good if it was created by a dedicated developer. Think about it like this, a construction company has 46 workers and have 15 sites they are constructing. That leaves near 3 workers per site. The buildings will take much slower to build now since they are spread out to many jobs.

Your brain can only build skills by applying them over time, 10+ thousand hours to be exactish. Mozart started at the age of 11 years old creating music, but he didn’t create anything like he was know for until 23 years old, that by the way is about 87,000 hours. You averagely master a skill after about 10,000 hours of practice. You may master a skill after 10,000 hours, but… your still may not be the best. That takes years and years and year, 8 years to be exactish and passion; a drive. 

You maybe thinking, “well then, couldn’t you just spend a few years on one skill, then another few years on another skill. Your problem will then be soved, you can focus on one skill at a time”. In more or less words. Let’s go back to the construction example. You have built the a building will all 46 workers, it is now the best building ever. The workers now move all their focus to the new building they are constructing. After awhile the best building ever was made again, but you… I mean the workers lost something. While the workers focused on the new building, what happened to the last one. It now was out done by another construction company who focused completely. I am sure in many ways their are exemptions, but in most cases people can only be the best at one skill. Even if you have half the workers tending to the last one, the same problem exists.

If you hire for a company or do anything of the sorts, dont hire someone because they have many skills, hire the person who focuses on one. Quality vs quantity should be kept in mind always.

I have seemed to have lost the meaning of the article’s title. But the idea behind this does follow in many situations, not just designers and coders.

Ryan R.
“Interaction Designer” (so called)