New CSS Tricks and Design Engineers

On the subject of design engineers that’s been getting some attention in the front-end community lately (yes I am quoting myself, shut up):

The problem (which I didn’t realize at the time) was that the organization I worked for was ignoring this front-of-the-front-end work and painted everything with the same brush—treating everything as “engineering.”

But when you don’t break up the team into these specialist groups, then that’s how these problems in the front-end begin.

If an organization doesn’t believe in front-of-the-front-end, then that’s going to cause all sorts of anxiety for the people who naturally fit into that role but can’t. So, if you’re feeling that you need to pick a side between design and engineering, then perhaps you’re a “design engineer.”

We need engineers, we need designers, and we absolutely need design engineers to make that connection across the great divide between the front-of-the-front-end and the back-of-the-front-end. It’s only then that we can make truly great things together.