What’s My Title, Again? A Case for Generalists in the Web Industry

There’s this notion of “generalists” that has increased from unspoken, to murmurs, to a roar heard loud and clear. It’s in response to an ever-growing necessity for Renaissance men and women to work alongside specialists in an agency environment. But what does this mean, and are the tides turning on experts?While specialists master their craft, generalists have experience in multiple niches, hence the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none.” The debate between the two can go on and on, as it’s normally frowned upon in our industry to be a generalist. There’s nothing wrong with mastering your calling, but an agency built solely around specialists can run into problems. Problems like a lack of collaboration and the abominable bad word…silos.The Internet is in a constant state of evolution, so the need for designers who know code and developers who know design is growing. Heck, the need for both camps to also understand animation is growing. This, my friends, is where those jacks of all trades come in.Generalists can help break down silos and strengthen collaboration. They’re able to fill in those holes where a compromise in production is possible. Take me, for example: I’m a designer that focuses on the web and motion, and has enough front end experience to make (or sometimes break) a site from scratch.That front-end experience, as well as what I’ve learned in After Effects, is applied to what my coworkers and I build for the web. I can also collaborate with specialists on either side of the spectrum to ensure that approved mockups aren’t thrown over the fence like a grenade. We can keep the production workflow moving like a well-oiled machine.

Examples, please!

Enough with the sweeping positives, surely you want some real examples. I drew much inspiration on this topic from this year’s Front End Design Conference, whose lineup was about as diverse as I’ve ever seen: from the creator of a popular children’s iOS app, to the webmaster of CSS Tricks, and even a graphic designer who uses as much chrome in his work as possible. The gist from their talks all support this concept of generalists—here were my favorites.

• Sophie Shepherd gave a great talk about style guides and how they’re just as important internally as they are as a deliverable. They’re intended to be a single point of reference for design and development, so that if collaboration happens early and often, then not only will they always be up to date, but some effective pattern libraries can also come out of it.
• Katie Kovalcin was another heavy hitter with her talk on performance, as responsive website bloat seems to be an ongoing topic. Establishing a performance budget (think MBs instead of dollars) is essential to everyone that touches a project, and rapid collaboration will only solidify that importance. Would these topics be implemented amongst a team of pure specialists? Maybe. But adding generalists into the mix would increase the odds that these contemporary fundamentals are executed from the get-go.
• Web animations are on the rise and as a result, so is our responsibility to use them properly. During Val Head’s talk, she mentions how web animations get a bad rap, and to be honest, that’s pretty accurate. When in the wrong hands, your website can go from 0 to 100 real quick, and that’s in the you're receiving a lot of traffic because it’s being passed around as a web faux pas direction. Val goes on to explain how “great UI animation has purpose and style,” and in order to do that you should, at the very least, understand some simple principles. It may not be optimal to have someone on site that specializes in animation, so having a designer/developer with knowledge on the subject can help implement interactions with proper design and intention.

The Internet is a wild and crazy place. The constant need to design for every device and viewport means that we have to break old habits and tendencies. For your agency, that may mean hiring well-rounded individuals to complement those expert designers and developers.As A List Apart pointed out earlier this year, “The key is to find the right balance of specialists and generalists on your team—to use both to their advantage and to nurture healthy, productive environments.” At the end of the day, it’s not about everyone mastering their field—it’s about delivering the best product possible to the client. And we’re finding more and more that Jack’s the one for the job.