If it wasn’t clear enough that the web came first and web marketing second, just look at our job titles. Web designer, web developer, interaction designer, user-interface designer, webmaster. Make it stop!
It’s embarassing that a relevant article could be written about my field where the second sentence reads:
The hardest part of being a professional web designer is telling people what I do for a living.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/proud
Any web designer who’s been around the industry more than a day will read that with a slow nod, grunting as if to say, Yep, I heard that. That is not okay.
Thanks to my former employer, I went from gem-in-the-rough web designer kid to having a decent understanding of where this industry is heading. How did I get there? Finding out which blogs to read, finding out how professionals coded their sites. Etc.
One of the greatest things that happened to me — talk about luck — was when my new employer, who seemed so great at the time for doing this (and plopping a hot Macbook Pro in my lap, oh everything was so shiny new then! :) ), sent me to New Orleans for a weekend to attend An Event Apart.
One of the most starkly ‘duh’ moments I had listening to these exciting creatives talk about the web was when Jeffrey Zeldman read off a list of how many names there were for basically my position, give or take a few minor differences.
I couldn’t believe it — there were like 17 different job titles for what were essentially the same position!
It’s time for the inventive, creative minds we are to stand up and redefine our job titles! I am no longer a web designer/developer! C’mon people, the web is the single greatest communications development of our generation! You’re lucky if you get a new medium at all in a generation, and this one is a revolution! (You know, the first mass two-way medium. It really is special.)
Yet, here we slither around as apologists for what we do just because people don’t get it — just because we’re ahead of the curve in a freakin’ awesome wild-west showdown of a medium that’s too explosive to contain. Yes, I’m proud to be a web designer! Damn proud. But can’t we do just rebrand ourselves a little?
Okay, I know we’re not all that way. But I don’t think I’m so far off in describing our industry as a whole.
People don’t have time to understand what we do, and I don’t blame them.
But here’s the crux of the problem: you will never gain respect for your position until your position has a name of its own.
What are you?
- I’m an artist.
- I’m an author.
- I’m a salesman.
- I’m a lawyer.
- I’m a soldier.
- I’m a musician.
- I’m a carpenter.
- I’m a sailor.
- I’m a trucker.
- I’m a doctor.
- I’m a broker.
- I’m a ...
I’m a web developer?! —I mean, I’m an interaction designer. —Er, really I’m a senior Java architect.
Are you kidding? Is that what you are?
There has to be a single term for what we do that describes all of us — and it can’t be web designer. Then, you can go quibble about exactly what you are in your structure with your colleagues later.
My principal objection to all of these is that they continually use the word ‘web’ as an adjective. It’s like saying, Well, I’m not quite a designer, I’m a web designer. —Oh, dear. Well, I am sorry to hear that.
Why isn’t there one word for someone who deals with the internet?
Of course, internetist sounds kind of lame. So does webbist. ... Um. Interneter? There is so much stigma from the internet’s early years. It’d be nice if it wasn’t perceived the same as saying, I’m a geek.
Where does doctor come from? Lawyer I get. Artist. ... Can we borrow from another language? Something must sound good in some language somewhere!
Are there any linguists out there? What are we? There has to be a better name. Dive into ancient Greek if you have to. Give us a better name!
Comments
Hi, Sean! I couldn’t agree more. However, I don’t know that I would want to lump all web professionals together, since the spectrum for such work is so broad. It’s sort of the same reason we have different words for professors and teachers.
Like you, I enjoy both design and development and I think I’ve got a pretty decent understanding of both. I, too, use the word “web developer” to describe myself, but even that word is a bit overloaded to include folks that write stored procedures and web services all day. I think that’s why I’ve grown so fond of the phrase “front-end engineer” to describe my field of interest. It’s the best term I’ve found so far to describe development that directly relates to the user experience.
But if you really want something all encompassing - how about “web architect”?
by angel brown on April 27, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Oh my gosh, I can so relate… I think I was at the same AEA ("same An Event...” “Same Event"), by the way. Who knows, maybe we sat next to eachother. Or maybe not. Mac vs. lowly Lenovo.
I have never felt good about “Web Designer.” I’m more of a Web designer/CSS developer/analyst/strategist/UI designer/Information Architect/SEO specialist/usability expert. (Yes, all of these things.) I really don’t want to think that I’m so shallow as for it to be a pride thing. It shouldn’t matter, right? But on the other hand…
What we do is so cool, and by golly, it isn’t easy. It requires continual education and staying ahead of the curve technically… We must have an unusual blend of right- and left-brain skills. We are the creative technicals.
So I have to admit I wish I saw a spark of respect in a person’s eye when I tell someone I’m a Web Designer. More often than not I hear something like “How nice honey. My son does his high school band pages...”
by Barbie on April 28, 2010 at 5:52 pm
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It’s funny. In German, there are two words for students the way we have professor/teacher. If you’re in school, you’re a Schueler (schooler, literally - Schuelerin if you’re a girl). If you’re in university, you’re a Student (pron. Shtudent - or Studentin).
Sometimes I think of the web industry the way I do the film industry. Of course, there are some pretty huge differences, but there are a lot of different skills that make up both. In film, there are producers, directors, editors, grips, cinematographers, writers, etc. But none of them use the term film to modify their job title.
So what does Stephen Spielberg do for a living? He’s a director. He isn’t a film director. I guess film inherited that title from the stage. But it’s an issue of respect for the industry, which the web is gaining. I wonder what they called directors when film was in its infancy.
We’ll probably inherit titles from graphic design and from programming, and I guess that’s what’s going on. Web designers are more like print designers. Web developers are more like software developers.
But what will be the trigger that lops off the word ‘web’?
I like web architect. I also like web producer, if you picture someone like a producer in film who is like a CEO, making all the lead decisions. But it’s not a hands-on position.
Since I’m small and do everything myself, I’d be more like an independent filmmaker—how about webmaker? lol Web Jack-of-all-trades :)—webjack (or webjill).
Um… why not webby? I like that. Maybe I’m a webby.
It would be cool if someone created a site to address this issue. I’d love to get a bunch of creative minds thinking about this, as trivial as it might be.
I guess that’s the crux of the issue for me: the web is very balanced with left-brain and right-brain, but all these titles are so left-brained.
Ah, well. Thanks for the comment, Angel!
by Sean McCambridge on April 27, 2009 at 11:37 pm