See this is the thing with many industries now, because technology is always advancing there's always a chance that you're job will be automated in the future and that there will be no need for web design or development, it'd be automated. I think this is a good career to get into seeing as it's good money if you are good, it's also easy to actually get the skills for the job.

 

I had chose this as well as electrical engineering, I speculate over what is the best career out of the two, but electrical engineering is so hard to get into compared to this, seeing as I can learn this at home, whereas that I can't, they want some weird skills that I don't think I could ever get just from having a PC.

 

Both careers are good IMO, but do you think they'll last? I have this gut feeling that in 10 years time web design/development will have become automated and anyone that wants to set up their own website could do it within a day. It would be quite disappointing to go far in a career then eventually you couldn't earn anything.

 

By the way, do you think electrical design engineering is a good choice? That as well as this were the best ideas I had IMO, I seriously couldn't think of anything else that was well paid, I can imagine EDE would last a lot longer though.

Don't worry, nothing will ever replace the human input

Plus there's a lot more to [web] design than setting up a website - if you decide to continue in this direction, you'll find out.

 

My personal opinion would be - choose the job that you love doing and makes you happy.

I can see a time in the future where web "design" is obsolete. I know it's sci-fi but look at how people access information on computer screens in Star Trek TNG - there's basically one standard interface that data can be viewed on, nothing fancy, straight to the point. Let's face it, when you interact with information on the web or any computer system you don't need a gazillion layouts or designs, you only need one that's best suited to the content. Perhaps in future there will be a handful of different "styles" you can use, maybe high/low contrast, light or dark, and perhaps systems will be clever enough to arrange content on screens automatically in the optimal way.

Just like graphic designers will be needed to design printed media like posters magazines etc. web designers will be needed for as long as people will be using web pages. You cannot automate a creative process.

Design is one of the trades with the lowest risk of beeing automated. Just look at the car industry: Robots might be building the cars but the car designers are not replaced by robots. in fact the design is probably the only aspect of the entire car manufacturing process that has not been automated.

Edited May 2, 201511 yr by Nillervision

I don't think we'll have any issues, AI has a big problem in that it cannot replicate the gut feeling which is what we base a large number of decisions on, and even it isn't the deciding factor it still has influence. AI can do amazing things with logic and for a long time they have tried to automate programming and make it easy but have not even come close to making it a reality.

 

This talk is a great overview about all this

 

The only jobs I see at threat from automated build tools and WYSIWYG editors are those at the very bottom of the chain, I think there will be a higher barrier of entry to paid work in the industry. I cannot see any AI system even coming close to the work of a skilled developer or designer.

Edited May 2, 201511 yr by rbrtsmith

You know what's great? Behind every automated task there's a man. As the technology is evolving, different job types will appear, but no matter how smart the computer is, it can never replace a human brain, at least not in the near future. Well, I hope so, otherwise Terminator won't be just a cheesy action movie after all.

Edited May 5, 201511 yr by sandragenuinejobs

I think the market for designer/developer won't disappear but surely soon 1 will be able to do the job of 3. That is because people like us develop automated plugins, codes and systems which makes it easy for anyone to be a "web designer" or "web developer"

 

Better make a 5 years plan and also something to fall on incase you don't make it in this industry.

I think the market for designer/developer won't disappear but surely soon 1 will be able to do the job of 3. That is because people like us develop automated plugins, codes and systems which makes it easy for anyone to be a "web designer" or "web developer"

 

Better make a 5 years plan and also something to fall on incase you don't make it in this industry.

 

I think that will ring true for very basic projects, wasn't it about 10-15 years ago a 'webmaster' would do all three, things have gotten way more complicated since then, especially on the frontend. But for low spec work there could be job lossess there as that stuff can be easier automated and quality / runtime performance is secondary to cost.

 

For any kind of project where performance is a key factor then the use of plugins is best avoided as they will rarely match the spec exactly. The things I automate right now are things like code minification, concatenation - repetitive tasks.

Edited May 5, 201511 yr by rbrtsmith

Site builders and templates have been around for ages, and haven't made a dent in the industry. Companies don't want generic, they want personality, and that can't be understood or produced by AI. I actually think it will go the other way. I've seen way more demand for custom work, not templates. The people who have based their whole business on re-skinning templates without doing the main work will ultimately find it the most challenging to keep up.

 

I do think it's going to be more difficult for developers and designers to complete with each other, with the influx of talent that's around. There's no doubt that jobs are going to get very competitive.

Maybe a bit off-topic, but I have been reading a lot about the concept of a full stack developer, it varies widely within the different sources I have found. Nonetheless, I think things are moving on from being a specialist in one area (for example design only) and more towards dealing with different skill-sets depending on the current task and learning on the job.

 

On the other hand, narrow fields like WP development, Drupal development, Magento development, etc shouldn't be underestimated imo, as there are specifics that could be easily overlooked by someone inexperienced with the system.

 

Obviously the more someone learns and improves their skills / adds new skills, the more they are worth!

Edit: Not to mention, the more you know, the better you can argue with clients!

Edited May 5, 201511 yr by teodora

There will never be a point in time when all of this stuff is automated. It will just never happen. As long as there are websites, there will be a need for developers and designers. It will never change.

 

Even in 100 years time?

This will go until the end of the internet. So no need to worry

As long as there is the need for websites then there will be the demand for human creativity.

 

Could websites be replaced one year in the future by something though?

 

Personally I think mobile-first could become a fad, if rolled-up mobile screens become reality.

Edited May 14, 201511 yr by James Winfield

@@robbydesigns - When design in the browser is done properly, it doesn't make a designer redundant, far from it, the designer will brain storm ideas alongside developers, then they sit -together at a machine and code, the designer giving continual input to the developer. It's a very different workflow to traditional design. The problem was that Photoshop is great for fixed designs, but it's very lacking when it comes to represent a fluid responsive application. -- not to mention animations, user triggered events etc.. This way of working has been trialed by many startups and due to its success it has been gradually finding it's way into much larger tech organisations. If it didn't work they'd drop it. They haven't.

 

 

By the way I think specialising will earn you more $$ -- if you get really, really good at it. However it could be short lived if that technology dies off or is replaced.

Bit difficult to be a jack of all trades now with the huge (ever growing) array of languages, frameworks, testing platforms etc.

Edited May 14, 201511 yr by rbrtsmith

I can see a time in the future where web "design" is obsolete. I know it's sci-fi but look at how people access information on computer screens in Star Trek TNG - there's basically one standard interface that data can be viewed on, nothing fancy, straight to the point. Let's face it, when you interact with information on the web or any computer system you don't need a gazillion layouts or designs, you only need one that's best suited to the content. Perhaps in future there will be a handful of different "styles" you can use, maybe high/low contrast, light or dark, and perhaps systems will be clever enough to arrange content on screens automatically in the optimal way.

There will never be a time when web "design" is obsolete and the why is simply that design in general evolves, tastes change, we find new and better ways to do things every day. Designers are responsible for everything you can see that is not a part of nature, design consistantly evolves, your argument about the interfaces does not stand up either, look at for example apple, the moment they created ios 8 flat design become popular then microsoft created their software using flat design principles, apple had redefined the outline of design in regards to ui and ux, in other words it evolved but Microsofts new software looked nothing like apples. That argument as well as the simple one of corporate competition keeps driving us forward and design will move forward with it.

 

Design can be traced back all the way to the cave man with drawings on the wall, its not goong to suddenly stop evolving just because its gone digital. Lastly different content requires different design solutions, no structual layout or design would ever work 100% of the time under all circumstances.

There will never be a time when web "design" is obsolete and the why is simply that design in general evolves, tastes change, we find new and better ways to do things every day. Designers are responsible for everything you can see that is not a part of nature, design consistantly evolves, your argument about the interfaces does not stand up either, look at for example apple, the moment they created ios 8 flat design become popular then microsoft created their software using flat design principles, apple had redefined the outline of design in regards to ui and ux, in other words it evolved but Microsofts new software looked nothing like apples. That argument as well as the simple one of corporate competition keeps driving us forward and design will move forward with it.

 

Design can be traced back all the way to the cave man with drawings on the wall, its not goong to suddenly stop evolving just because its gone digital. Lastly different content requires different design solutions, no structual layout or design would ever work 100% of the time under all circumstances.

 

Agreed, designers create trends machines are not able to do that, also in the video I posted above, the speaker talks a lot about the gut and that AI can deal with logic no problem, but cannot replicate the gut feeling. A huge part of a design is done through gut decisions, emotions etc. So no a machine would not be able to replicate this. At least not for a very long time.

Edited May 15, 201511 yr by rbrtsmith

Have any of you seen advertisements for "The Grid"? They've been everywhere on my Facebook and Twitter feed with promoted posts.

 

It's going to be an AI based web design service... launching in the next month or two, I think.

 

I'm of the belief that there is a market for everyone. Some markets diminish by these advancing technologies. Yet, people are slow to adapt to new tech.

 

Technology replaces the commodity service people. If you build websites and know nothing else, you probably won't grow in the future. You need to continuously improve to build your intuition and wisdom.

 

And ultimately what is the purpose of a website? To make money or grow the user base... that's it. So put time and effort there, learning how to drive traffic and how to come up with marketing strategies.

 

I definitely agree with other posts on here that recommend specializing in a niche. You will begin to understand niche problems that others who build websites for anyone won't understand. That's when you become an "insider". You are viewed as a crucial part of the team and not an expense where someone is looking for the absolute cheapest option.

Have any of you seen advertisements for "The Grid"? They've been everywhere on my Facebook and Twitter feed with promoted posts.

 

It's going to be an AI based web design service... launching in the next month or two, I think.

 

I'm of the belief that there is a market for everyone. Some markets diminish by these advancing technologies. Yet, people are slow to adapt to new tech.

 

Technology replaces the commodity service people. If you build websites and know nothing else, you probably won't grow in the future. You need to continuously improve to build your intuition and wisdom.

 

And ultimately what is the purpose of a website? To make money or grow the user base... that's it. So put time and effort there, learning how to drive traffic and how to come up with marketing strategies.

 

I definitely agree with other posts on here that recommend specializing in a niche. You will begin to understand niche problems that others who build websites for anyone won't understand. That's when you become an "insider". You are viewed as a crucial part of the team and not an expense where someone is looking for the absolute cheapest option.

 

The purpose of a website is the platform to advertise what you want to sell or promote, building websites in itself is a growing market as long as you keep up with what is happening in the web world, an example would be making transitions between html with reactive design to html 5 and responsive design, the technology in the case of web is coding and design which are ever changing

 

You are right that the purpose of creating a website is usually to make money or grow a user base and marketing strategies will help that, giving a designer or developer a direction in which to 'point at' but that's all marketing does, dont get me wrong, marketing if done correctly is a very important stage in web development but so is every other section, unfortunately I think your statement seems to be coming off a little short in that regards.

 

A niche is a great way to go, to offer something that no one else is offering will bring customers to your door, but keeping them at your door requires a little more, it requires the ability to give clients what they want to see in order to make that purchase, in the case of businesses, they want to see results, they want to see that their investment in you will not be wasted, they want to see cold hard numbers, something they can understand, they dont care about marketing, they dont care about design, they dont care about development, to create a niche in any of those areas would not sell yourself to the business, they want to see how you will make them money, nothing else, with numbers in business comes understanding, with understanding comes business and the freedom to use your skills to their fullest.

Have any of you seen advertisements for "The Grid"? They've been everywhere on my Facebook and Twitter feed with promoted posts.

 

It's going to be an AI based web design service... launching in the next month or two, I think.

 

I'm of the belief that there is a market for everyone. Some markets diminish by these advancing technologies. Yet, people are slow to adapt to new tech.

 

Technology replaces the commodity service people. If you build websites and know nothing else, you probably won't grow in the future. You need to continuously improve to build your intuition and wisdom.

 

And ultimately what is the purpose of a website? To make money or grow the user base... that's it. So put time and effort there, learning how to drive traffic and how to come up with marketing strategies.

 

I definitely agree with other posts on here that recommend specializing in a niche. You will begin to understand niche problems that others who build websites for anyone won't understand. That's when you become an "insider". You are viewed as a crucial part of the team and not an expense where someone is looking for the absolute cheapest option.

 

So far the code generate by this system is far from perfect. I think the system has many flaws, and the term AI in the name is misleading as to what it's actually doing.