While I agree with the central theme ("UI/UX Designers and developers are going to get harder to find") I don't agree with a lot of his reasons.<p>He's obviously not an engineer and doesn't really understand AJAX, jQuery or HTML5.<p>Personally, I believe the shortage is going to get worse because there is going to be an increase in demand and there are VERY few paths through traditional educational outlets that will produce a good UI/UX designer/engineer. HCI at Stanford is the closest I've seen recently while interviewing candidates, and even then it has less to do with web technologies than interaction principles.
<i>"Who needs a backend engineer when you can do most of the work using REST and AJAX calls?"</i><p>Yep, it's just that easy. Everyone knows that AJAX calls are outsourced to Chinese and Indian people on the back end. One per request.
What hand-wavy nonsense. Yeah, programmers are just commodity and we will just offshore everything. This guy just states this flippantly without even acknowledging the several problems associated with that in Yet Another Case Of UX Worship. The idea that you don't need "backend guys" because you are just going to make "AJAX Calls" makes this guy just look silly.<p>I mean, yeah, Google wasted money on all those engineers. Why did they build on that infrastructure? All they needed was a few AJAX calls, duh! Finally, Google figured it out and through away all that massive indexing set of algorithms so they could just make AJAX calls.<p>I don't see what this guy's fascination is with AJAX and "making calls from Javascript" or how this means we don't need programmers anymore. Apparently, we can just appeal to some vague "throw it in the cloud and it will scale" mentality.<p>What makes it worse for me is that apparently this Usability guru was involved in this website:<p><a href="http://www.pickanexcuse.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.pickanexcuse.com/</a><p>Really ... a usability guru?
I like the general idea of putting more focus on good UX Engineers. But, this guy seems to think that making the back-end support a bunch of Ajax calls is easier than.<p>In fact, you start needing more work to make it efficient since you have to break down everything into exactly what needs to be in that call with appropriate permissions etc.
Google is mostly about backend data processing. Google's front-end effort is nice, but dwarfs in comparison with the backend accomplishments.
The same is true for most other businesses.
So the demand for backend engineers would definitely be higher.
And it's easier to outsource UI than outsource backend, because backend is typically more complex and harder to test and communicate about, so keeping developers closer to business users is even more important in for backend functionality, than for front-end functionality.
(I'm the author of the article...)<p>As one comedian said, "I don't come down to McDonalds and make fun of you while you're working..."<p>You might not agree with all my reasons or some of my thoughts. However, the indifference of great UI by engineers kills companies. I have sat in environments time and time again where lack of attention of detail creates horrible user experiences, and this affect the bottom line in a very real way.<p>This should read as, "you are bitting the hand that feeds you."<p>The best engineers I have met ask questions, and have a genuine concern for the user. They want to create great experiences. The engineers that don't want to get involved in a positive way without being a destructive gatekeeper, I have no time for them.<p>We have now reached a tipping point where most companies are recognizing the need for great user experiences, because poor one's cost companies time and money, both in lost customers and lost productivity.<p>This indifference by engineers is the reason why a UI Engineer position was created by many companies; they realize that most back end engineers just want to code in a way that most people at car manufacturing plants want to put the bolt on.<p>That mentality didn't work out well for GM and other car companies. It's also not working out for most technology companies.<p>You can bitch all you want, but if you aren't contributing to the bottom line, you're just a cost center. And cost centers get outsourced, plain and simple.
I am an experienced UI developer and while I agree with the main point of the article I would like to note that not all front-end positions are created equal.<p>I've worked at amazing shops where there was a clear role definition (made easier by the beauty that is Django) and the expected code quality was really high. There were project based code reviews to ensure this.<p>I've worked at places where a front-end developer meant you write Java in Eclipse (which took 15 mins to launch) that in turn generated JS that manipulated the DOM to create your markup. This is common practice in more places than we realize.<p>If you're a UI dev do your homework before accepting any position. The market is really dry for our field and people on the interview will lie to get you to come over. I've been to over a dozen interviews in just the past year (and I am thinking I should write more about this) and the industry expectations are simply rarely properly determined of what the role entails.<p>Apologies for the rant. Downvote if you sense my frustration :)
As an experienced Frontend Developer thats worked for a number of startups, this article is not well written. I prefer Developer rather than Engineer. It does seem like really good frontend developers are becoming more rare because it takes a unique blend of technical skill (mainly javascript), understanding Usability/UX and having aesthetic tendencies. More and more companies are looking for Frontend developers that can also write Framework template code (Rails, Django) which requires even more skill or exp. Its kinda a specialized niche.
FYI, I am currently looking for a new job if anyone has an opening.....
I agree with the sentiment that a UX/UI engineering need is going to be a necessary requirement not easily fulfilled in the near future. The good ones are fluent in back-end keyboard mashing, front-end spit shining, and everything in between. They need to have design skills, programming chops, user experience knowledge, a taste for the tasteful, a writers intellect, and a certain je ne sais quoi insight into what makes people want to use your product. They are not designers, nor are they programmers... They are both.
I liked the article, but little bits don't add up. I'd say it's an entertaining read, but maybe not as solid on information as I'd expect for a frontpage HN article.