[IxDA Discuss] Am I a Unicorn?

[Daniel Weese]

While interviewing over the last 2 months, I came to realize that "Developer" and "Designer" have nothing in common but the letter D. I interviewed at several places in Nashville, and each time I took along some examples of my design work, as well as an interaction design document I had done on a project. Everyone loved the work and the detail, but they all said the same thing. They basically code by the seat of their pants and fix it as they go along, or fix it after the users complain when it hits the market.  I tried to explain to them that some design work up front might cut down on rewriting all that code, and that alienating your user base from day one was a poor approach, but they prefer to give the appearance of progress to the bosses by them all typing away at their desks. I finally had to take a job at a company that likes my design thinking, but still operates a code-as-you-go shop. I came to realize that a developer/designer is a difficult thing to sell in this area. I'm 
 hoping to slowly blend design into the next iteration of this product. We'll see how it goes.

For future interviews, how do you balance and sell the need for design with the need for the executives to feel like they're getting their money's worth from the developers? I feel somewhat like a hybrid in the software world. I don't have the IxD experience that you all do, but I'm not just a coder typing away without a care for what the user sees.

A frustrated developer,

Dan Weese