Designer Knowledge

Recently on A List Apart there
has been some discussion
about the need for web designers to know HTML.

The general
consensus was that, yes, designers need to know HTML because that
is the medium that they are working with. My initial reaction was pretty
much the same.

Then I got to thinking. (I hate it when that happens.) HTML really isn’t
the medium. The Web itself is the medium. This led me to the idea that
maybe a designer doesn’t need to know HTML. What they need to know is
the Web.

Knowing HTML isn’t enough. Designers need to know the capabilities and
limitations of the medium as a whole. By understanding the concepts behind
DHTML, Flash, image optimization, and database-driven sites, a designer
can be more effective by having a larger palette from which to draw.