Pauli Exclusion for the Techie and Creative in Internet Marketing
Internet marketing is a blend of technology and creative. When putting together a landing page campaign or whole new site, you have designers who create the art and the developers who make it do magic.
Some companies make the mistake of having their developer also be the designer. Not good. You’ll end up with a really, really large title text in font size 32 mismatched with really small paragraph text in font size 10. Colors will probably consist of black, white, blue or red and no shades in between. Your background will have some sort of funky rainbow gradient. Not to mention the mega indignation from the developer explaining, “Yeah, it doesn’t look great but it works.”
Just don’t do go there. Get artists to create the art and lay it out nicely. Get developers to make the buttons do something. You’ve probably heard of the Pauli Exclusion Principle at some point in your science classes - no two electrons can occupy the same space at the same time. Think of web design roles similarly. Programmers are not designers. Designers are not programmers. They do not occupy the same brain space at the same time, or a design/functional collision disaster could be the result!
Don’t take my word for it, though. See for yourself.
This page was designed by our programmer while she was developing:
As you can see, it is...functional. Well, it would DO everything the client asked for. This is true. The buttons work and they are very...round.
This is the site flow reorganized with client discussion and cleaned up by the designer. The functional flow has been adjusted by the developer accordingly:
We here at Portent understand that you want your site to make bucket loads of cash and reach lots of people. But we’ll make sure you look good while doing it too.
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What a freeing concept! This is totally relevant to those on the other side too- the employees who *strive* to be good at everything. Ok, here goes: Hello, my name is Anna and I am a producer/designer obsessed with becoming a designer/producer/developer “triple threat“. Problem is, that’s just not in the cards. I am a creative-producer type by nature, who if left unsupervised, will make numerous agonizing attempts at solving a problem before dragging my sorry tail over to a developer for help. I’m embarrassed to say that sometimes I have spent entire weekends of free-time just mulling over how to solve one teeny tiny dev issue. Other times, I’m lucky that there’s no time to waste on such pursuits. Plus, I gotta keep it real. A developer sits at the desk next to mine, who is usually patient and will work through problems with me. AND he brings yummy homemade treats to work all the time. Ah, the perks of being a developer. It’s tempting to skip the insomnia-inducing process and go straight for the assistance every time. But I digress.
Cathy, it’s nice to have the reaffirmation that it’s ok for people like me to specialize in one or two areas. And in fact, it’s the smart thing to do. At the same time, I probably will continue the agony of sleepless nights and frustration once in awhile, because it IS healthy to try and grow my skills… within reason. While I understand I’ll never be a super efficient developer, I know the exercise itself is the most important part. There’s a huge value in learning how to think like whoever you’re *not*, whether that’s a developer, a designer, or whatever else. It opens your eyes to a way of thinking that may be strikingly different from your own (or not). You can then call up that perspective when a project calls for usability critique. And seriously… have you run across any lately where usability isn’t a priority? I’m not saying any of this replaces the importance of user studies. But it sure doesn’t hurt to begin a project armed with a sense of how others may use your creation.
Thanks for the comment, Anna!
I'm a generalist myself as I do a little bit of a lot of different things, both technical and creative. I *do* think of myself as one of those people in the middle, too. I agree with you 100% that trying new things, especially things that aren't your particular 'strength', is a great way to better understand working with others and keep your own personal development fun and interesting!