Can you program Graphics with Visual Basic?

Is it better to have a graphics designer who can program HTML/JavaScript, or separate people for those roles?

• Would you rather have an all in one designer that does both graphics and HTML/Javascript, or a separate Graphics UI designer and HTML/CSS coder?

• Answer:

  It depends. How big is your company? Who else do you have on staff? Are you a software startup (get separate people) or, say, a law firm that needs someone to maintain their website and intranet (one person is probably fine, since quality doesn't matter as much)? It's *extremely* rare to find someone who is really good at both graphic design and production-quality web coding -- and it's more rare now that web front ends have become very mature and sophisticated than it was, say, 5 or 10 years ago.  There's little overlap between the skill sets that you need in each field -- they really are separate roles. "Jack of all trades, master of none" applies here. The interstitial role might be a UI designer or someone with an HCI background. For example, it's more common to find a web developer with an HCI background (i.e. they can do a good deal of interaction design) or a graphic designer with HCI (they can be a proficient interaction designer). In both cases, you'd want to pair that combo person with a product manager who has a strong user focus and background in product development (compared to a business development-focused product manager). If your business depends on excellent software, you almost certainly need a separate web developer and graphic designer.  Note that graphic designers aren't defined as being adept at interaction (website) design, so if you really need a well-organized website, you'd need to specifically find a hybrid (graphic + interaction design) or a straight interaction designer.