Generation Gapped - Angry Little Tree
When I stumbled into the world of web development in the mid 90s, “state of the art” meant table-based layouts, JPEG image maps, and the occasional CGI script. They were dark times, full of spacer GIFs and half-tested regular expressions.
CSS, better HTML standards, and the maturation of server and client side frameworks have all made life better, but there’s a lot that’s stayed the same. Saddest of all, the contentious divide between “developers” and “designers” is still a fact of life in many organizations. I’ve worked in marketing agencies and web development shops; played negotiator between PR departments and IT teams; and watched as weary PERL developers argued with frustrated Photoshop jockeys. It’s never pretty, and the fonts never, ever look quite right.
Like many others who build web sites in those early years, I learned to preach the gospel of collaboration. If developers studied the principles of UX, if print-savvy designers sunk their teeth into HTML, if everyone stretched a bit, we could overcome so many problems! Every year, more and more people nodded their heads in agreement—but the cultural divide still felt like a wide one.
