General Question

n_downpour's avatar

Can this really be classified as "web design"?

Asked by n_downpour (8points) April 27th, 2011 from iPhone

I have a friend who makes beautiful websites and I’ve always wondered how does it. He calls himself a programmer, although he never appears to be “coding” anything, he just makes elegant websites with no real meat to them (little functionality). I took a look at the source code of a few of his websites and discovered that he uses open source (ready-made) templates for all his pages and makes money off someone else’s designs. Don’t get me wrong, after he drags about ten different open-source kits onto his site, it looks brilliant, although can this really be labeled as “freelance web design” – as he calls it?

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6 Answers

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math_nerd's avatar

@jbsofine :: Yes, he should be sued for using Open Source templates. ~

math_nerd (1871points)“Great Answer” (2points) Flag as…
Nullo's avatar

I’d say that it’s technically web design, but that a purist would scoff at him.

Nullo (22028points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
dabbler's avatar

Yes, he’s a web designer “it looks brilliant” He put stuff where it makes sense and it looks good. That’s good design and a lot of programmers are worse at that than they think they are.

Is he a programmer ? Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh… nope.
Nothing wrong with using templates, (cloning anything you have the rights to is totally appropriate if it does what you need) but if he didn’t write them where’s the programming?
And from a programming POV most of what you can do for a website without scripting on the server is lightweight even if he did write it. Javascript ? ..um, er, good enough for appetizers like a rollover here and there, but meaty not so much.

dabbler (18896points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
jaytkay's avatar

I would call that web design, but it’s not programming if it’s not interactive.

If the clients are happy and he’s using code which was meant to be shared, mazeltov for him.

jaytkay (25810points)“Great Answer” (1points) Flag as…
anartist's avatar

Open source is open source. No copy-right infringement here folks. For his ability to find, choose, and effectively utilize open source templates [just as he might utilize the templates included with DreamWeaver] kudos to him. For his inability to erase his tracks [unless he is conforming to the open source agreement by naming his source in the code] phooey.

What does he do for someone who wants interactivity?

anartist (14813points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…

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