The Difficulties of Web Design and Development

Some people are more creative than they are logical. The right hemisphere of their brains are more active than their left. For these people, creativity comes more naturally than logical analysis.

Tasks such as graphics design or desktop publishing are where these people shine. They perform naturally and can easily succeed in this type of environments. Analyzing computer code though, would be like reading Greek to them.

On the other end of the spectrum are the logical types who have a more active left hemisphere. Logical reasoning for them is natural and it never cease to amaze them how others could be so illogical.

These individuals are drawn toward mathematics and programming. They find it easy to break complex instructions into simple steps that the computer can understand. But give them a graphics tablet and a computer running Photoshop and they’ll be staring at the screen for a loooong while.

So, you have righties (right-brained not right-handed) whom you call if you have need of design and you have lefties whom you call if you need some programming done. So far so good.

But whom do you call if you decide to put up your website, the rightie or the leftie? If you say the rightie, then the design would definitely start good but the client and server-side script might be a bit of a mess.

With a leftie, your site will surely function but I’m not too sure about the typography, layout, line spacing, graphics and color combination.

The truth is that Web design and development is difficult. Not because it is inherently difficult but because it requires both creative and analytical abilities which few people posses. Most people posses one or the other.

Designers can learn some programming and programmers can take lessons in design but those are not their respective natural habitat. Man, for example, can learn to swim but can never hope to imitate the grace and speed of a dolphin. Some amphibians can move around on land but not as long or as efficient as land-dwellers.

If you are part of a team, this might not be a problem. The design and development tasks could be split among two or more persons. But if you are a freelancer or a one-man team, this is going to matter a lot unless you are one of the few who have balanced brain hemispheres (yes, there are).