What is it you do? What do you consider yourself?

This is a question I am often asked and have had several debates with fellow designers and friends about. I come from an art / design background, graduating from The Art Institute of Atlanta, but due to the the projects I work on (both at work and personal) I am heavily involved in all aspect of a project cycle.


Some people consider me a hybrid (whatever that is), some think I am a front end developer, some call me a designer, a producer, an inventor, a "Jack of All Trades", etc... Honestly I have never worried too much about what I am called or what label you want to put on what I do, I just do it. But the truth of the matter is titles are getting out of hand. Currently the title I hold is "Lead Interactive Designer" although I handle / lead design I also do front end development, project management, planning, usability, information architecture, and pretty much anything else that needs to get done that I can provide a creative solution for. So you ask yourself "why do I care what you do or what you are called" well honestly I am not writing this for myself but for others. People that are more worried with the title they hold or are trying to pinpoint or justify what it is they do. But even more-so to support Andrei Herasimchuk post Making the case for Interface Design and help clean up the title pool we have started filling.

Andrei is basically pushing to do away with all the frivolous titles we all have made for each other and decide on one all encompassing title, Interface Designer. I think Andrei makes a great point. I have heard people referred to as Flash Designers, Flash Developers, HTML Designers, Front End Designers, Front End Developers, Designers, Experience Designer, Information Designers, Usability etc.. (hell I have been called all of these at one point or another). But each of these different "positions" all have one things in common...You are always creating an interface. Wither a web site, an application, a DVD, whatever it is you create, as long as someone is interacting with technology (a computer of some kind) through, it is an interface. "Interface design is the larger role comprised of three smaller categories, areas of specialty that we are already familiar with: graphic design, information design and interaction design." So someone like myself who works in each of these would be an Interface Designer, or in my case (if you are over a team) a "Lead" Interface Designer.

All in all I just want you to read the article, it has some really good points and makes a lot of since if you think about it. So from know on if you would like to know what I do (or what title you can put on me) I am going to say I am an Interface Designer and refer you to this site. Hopefully this will end all the rants I have with people of titles, strengthen the industry, and provide others with a better insight into what it is we all do!