Should a web app developer know photoshop?

Question

I have been doing wep application development for some time now. One thing I overlooked was learning Photoshop. For basic web sites or for frontend development, the lack of this skill has slowed me down. Little things matter, and look and feel can be greatly enhanced with some graphics work. How important is for a web developer to have an integrated set of skills (databases, logic, ui), and particularly photoshop skills?

Answer 1

I'd say know enough to handle most of what you need, even if it's temporary while somebody else is getting you the long-term stuff. If you don't know (or want to learn) Photoshop, then I'd suggest learning CSS really well, so that you can lay out nice looking pages, in the absense of professional graphics.

I, like many here I assume, started web-development with a copy of notepad and photoshop. Fortunately, over the last 10 years I've been able to largely handle all of my own graphic needs, which means I don't have to struggle to explain what I need to some graphic designer who doesn't understand the box-model.

If you want less frustration, learn it yourself (at the very least to a degree where you can be of service to yourself).

Jack of all trades, master of none, though ofttimes better than master of one.

Answer 2

The answer really is "it depends." If you are strictly a software engineer, you would most likely outsource (or in-source, depending on your company size) any graphics production and you wouldn't need Photoshop skills.

Having said that, if you ever plan on building a site on your own, or with a small team, you might not have that graphical expertise in your company or the capital to be able to outsource. In this case, Photoshop skills are crucial.

In the end, learning is always a good thing. It doesn't hurt to learn a new skill, and it may be the skill that lands you your next job. You never know. My recommendation would be to pick up an introductory Photoshop book and work through some of the basic tutorials.

Answer 3

It's okay to have a basic understanding to make small things, but do not give much importance because there are specialized people dedicated to do that (the designers).

Follow the "Expert Pattern"!

Good Luck!

Answer 4

If you are planning to be a solo act, creating a web-application from front to back, then yes, you will need to be able to handle every portion of that. And part of that is website and graphics design.

The other option, which I would recommend from experience, would be to partner or subcontract with a web designer. That way you can focus on what you're good at, which is doing the application programming, which is plenty to keep a person busy. Then they can focus on what they're good at, which is layout and graphics design.

Answer 5

In general, it does not hurt. As a requirement... maybe. If you are a Java engineer, then no, you probably don't need Photoshop because you spend 8 hours a day looking at Business Object.

Supplementary to this is that most of the basic stuff that a developer could even do with Photoshop is not really a learning curve. Got a pencil tool? Got a color? Great, draw a rectangle, slap a filter on it, save to web.

I would say 80% of developers would have some legitimate use for basic graphics creation at least occasionally, but as a requirement... not really.

Answer 6

To some extent this depends on what kind of work environment you have around you, really. At one end of the spectrum is the one man army where all kinds of hats have to be worn, though I've avoided Photoshop for my web development career which is now in its 12th year or so. When I started, I was editing files in Emacs, Vi or Pico in X-Windows. I know the plumbing side of things and understand where my limits are. To give an example of the other end, some companies will have designers that do all the graphics, network guys to handle firewalls and load balancers, DBAs to handle tuning databases and making sure queries are well constructed, so that doesn't leave a lot of room for getting into other areas without stepping on someone's toes.

In my first job with a dot-com, I didn't have to do graphics as there was a graphics designer or two to handle that usually. This was a fairly small company with only 2-3 techies so I did get used to all the behind the scenes stuff like configuring a PIX firewall, assigning IPs, setting up DNS records, e-mail accounts, etc. In subsequent jobs I don't think I've had that situation arise again.

In my current job, I work on building forms for this and that where graphics generally aren't required though when they are, a design team will generate the file required. I think it is more important to have server skills like knowing IIS and SQL Server rather than making something pretty as my job tends to involve making something work rather than just look good. I don't work for a company that makes websites for a living, is the key to my final point. I'm in the IS department of a company that runs 20+ web sites and so I'm in that back-end area which is where I'm comfortable. If where I worked did create web sites for other companies, I may have gotten into Photoshop and developed graphical skills instead of knowing more about server configurations and database skills. Thus, there is some bias in my answer is the warning I want to give.

Answer 7

You do not needd Photoshop skills, you need graphic design skills. Unless you find out you definitely need the full power of PS you'll be better off learning the basics with a more hands-on and accessible application.

I'd suggest you start practicing with a decent free application like GIMP or Paint.Net, and start thinking about trading up only when your skills and needs actually call for a more powerful setup. Even then, I believe that unless you plan a full time career in graphic design Fireworks (which is born and optimized for web design jobs) or CorelDraw! (which throws in a vector graphic application in the package) might be more appropriate for the kind of work you seem interested to.

As a fact, it is definitely true that Photoshop is the most powerful professional graphic application out there, but unless you have a need for its most advanced features this can be a reason against it instead of for it (like renting the biggest truck in town when you have just to move a crate).

Answer 8

There are many alternatives to Photoshop, but I think it's a good idea to know the basics if you're doing any kind of web development. I started out as a graphic designer and got into web design in the mid-90s. Along the way, I've continued to use Photoshop on a regular basis in parallel with PHP and Flash development. Knowing Photoshop and other graphics apps have been very helpful when creating Flash apps. It has also helped me with my career as there seems to be many PHP developers, but not many who are well-versed with PHP and Photoshop. If you're a freelancer, you don't have to outsource graphics work to designers and risk late or poor work, and if you work for a company you have job security since you have a broad skillset.

Others here have mentioned GIMP and other apps, but I think the Adobe CS4 design suite is the way to go if you want a design workflow. Creating graphics in Photoshop is a pain compared to Illustrator, so I usually start my design comps in Illustrator because of the vector nature, the ability to place items on a pixel-level and make fast changes when showing the comp to a client or boss. When someone's standing over your shoulder making suggestions, it's nice to be able to quickly move and adjust things immediately. Once the comp is approved in Illustrator, I move each element into a Photoshop document using Smart Objects, which have improved my workflow tremendously by allowing me to isolate elements as symbols that can be edited as their own temporary documents in the app they were originally created in. Now, I only need a single Photoshop file that contains the assets for my entire web site, yet I can still edit vector items in Illustrator by opening the item's Smart Object layer in Photoshop.

Additionally, Illustrator now has tools to aid in creating Flash graphics. You can set instance names in Illustrator before exporting the document to Flash where it retains layers and most effects. The only complaint I have is that once a vector graphic is imported to Flash you can't edit that graphic back in Illustrator. I'd like Adobe to add that feature so you have a similar concept to Smart Objects in Flash. You can edit bitmap graphics from the Flash library in their original app, but you can't do it with vector elements yet.

Answer 9

I'd add that even if you outsource most of your graphics, a basic understanding of graphic tools will help you understand how your teammates work, what is feasible and what isn't, etc...

Likewise, a graphic designer should know enough about web programming to know that some graphic elements are harder than others to implement (square vs weirdly shaped buttons to give a trivial example).

And as a bonus, you'll be able to make nicer photos your mom :)

Answer 10

I thought you said you were a developer? Which are you, a software developer who hacks design to make their code accessible, or a designer who hacks code to make their design functional? Either way they are two very different jobs.

You don't get many builders who are also interior designers. Team up with someone so you can provide the full package to customers, and you both gain.

Answer 11

I'd say Photoshop or GIMP or Fireworks or something. You're going to have to resize images at some point or slice out from a comp, even if you're not designing. Just simple basic understanding of how to do that is crucial for any kind of web development. Unless you like everything to be in plain text with some css.

That isn't to say one has to learn to "design" or anything. Just that one should know how to work with files from a designer.