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Comment by mrbauer1 | Hacker News Reader

Would the analogy be hire a DBA, Sys Admin, Back-end Developer and a Front-end Developer? Programmers have really stepped it up in the past few years and I feel that the UX/UI/X designer group hasn't. I don't know about you but I'm going to wait and hire the person who can do all these tasks. It's true they are rare but not because it's hard, but because they got lazy and didn't adapt to the web. Sounds a lot like Madison Ave doesn't it.

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I don't know about you but I'm going to wait and hire the person who can do all these tasks.

That's a great approach if you can pull it off. But I can say from personal experience that trying to find someone who truly meets all those competencies is quite difficult. It's amazing how many "web designers" are just people who can slice Photoshop files; they have no understanding whatsoever of what makes for a good, workable design for the web.

I think if you don't have somebody fighting for the user, the front end will be a reflection of the complexities of development and won't be a reflection of the user's behavior and needs.

I think a UX person ensures that development is a strategic process centered around the user, which in the end creates better products that people use and want.

Technically, everyone should be fighting for the user. The customer (or a representative thereof) should participate in all UI design decisions. Having a specific "UI person" sounds like trying to shoehorn agile methods into the middle of a BDUF process. (That's not to say it wouldn't work, though. I believe game companies do it all the time--a "game designer" is just a UX designer for a UX of which "fun" is an integral component.)

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