Should software development be separated from software design & usability?

Question

In most of the commercial jobs I've had to date, my role has mostly been confined to "writing the code", whereas the reason I wanted to get into development in the first place was because I enjoyed usability and design aspect of software.

I feel a bit dissalusioned now, because now, pretty much all my working day is spend "plugging things together". It seems like the most mundane work imaginable and it's no surprise programmers tend to be looked down upon in some industries if that's all people think we're capable of.

To get to my question - are there any jobs out there for developers who want a bit of creative control? For developers who aren't just code monkeys, but who want to build a beautiful product and be heavily involved, not just in the code, but in the whole design and vision of the product?

Answer 1

This is so alien to my experience that it makes me thankful I've always been in a small shop where one has to be a jack of all trades. If you're interested in that world, I'd suggest that you look in to a smaller shop or a company where they use small teams on projects.

Answer 2

It sounds like you might be happiest starting your own software company, or at least working on your own projects in your spare time.

Answer 3

I am not sure what technology you were working on. But there is an emerging area of creative programming you can see nowadays which is called Rich Internet/Interactive application(RIA) development. And there is a new role in the RIA wold called Integrators or UX Developers - who actually does programming and interactive design, like effects and animations and lot of fun. These people actually live in between the 'Photoshop' designers and hard core programmers.

WPF, Silverlight , Flash etc are the examples of this technology.

Answer 4

Yes, the jobs exist; and they're not that hard to get into. The thing that I've found is that those opportunities, though, are at the smaller companies.

In general, larger companies have more of a "structure" in place, where the senior people do the design, and then the implementation trickles down. Generally, design is considered to be a much more "senior" activity, and with good reason, because only with experience can you learn what makes a good design.

But in smaller companies, there's a much less solid and fixed strata; and even in junior positions in small companies, you can have a significant amount of input into design. Particularly if you show interest and skill.

My recommendation would be to find a position at a smallish sort of company; there'll almost certainly be an opportunity for you to use your design skills there.

Answer 5

At my company (Large+) every developer is tasked with developing one sub-application, that is part of the total system. The overall system's design was done by the seniors a while back but the design of each sub-application is responsibility of each developer (which includes discussing the design with the developers of the sub-applications you need to interface with of course). So its quite nice actually