front matter
I’ve worked on the web for a long time. When I say a long time, I mean a long time—as in my first browser was on the command line old. As in my first backend development was a CGI script old. With my nearly three decades of building dozens upon dozens of projects for the web, the one skill I’ve found most valuable is the ability to bridge the gaps between the worlds of design, user experience, and development.
Each of these fields attracts practitioners from different education and/or hobbyist backgrounds. This can be a point of tension, as folks in each camp tend to see their own field as having the greatest influence on a web project’s success. The reality is that the web exists in the nexus of these fields, relying equally on what each of these practices brings to the table. I have found that the most valuable people in any web project are those who understand enough of each field to be able to operate in that nexus, ensuring each team is communicating effectively with the other teams and that everyone is working together toward a shared goal.