Themer vs. Designer - Choosing A Name
The Drupal ecosystem has created a new title and job you don't find elsewhere. That job is of a themer. The name is built out of the Drupal theme subsystem. When we have had discussions regarding who the theme system should be built for or when we have talked about who the design for drupal movement is for the discussion has often turned to a conversation discussing a themer vs. designer. The problem is, for the theme system there is a better target than either of these and one the web development community at large will understand.
Front End Developer
The title of Front End Developer is used all over the Interwebs and the web development community. That is, except in drupal front end conversations.
Front end developers is a group that has been well defined and hashed out over time. There are front end developers working for SAAS companies, web application companies, the other open source projects, and all over.
Bonus Material
As a bonus, if we start adopting the Front End Developer terminology other people who do that around the web will start to better understand what we are talking about. Their google searches will return Drupal goodness in the results. They'll better see that Drupal is for them.
So, let's drop the name themer and the debates about themer vs. designer. Instead let's use the common term Front End Developer.
Comments
#1 conflate
Sure - sometimes. Other times, you actually want to distinguish Drupal specific skills (i.e. phptemplate overrides) versus general web building skills. In those cases, the term theme developer is more appropriate. Thats what we use in the handbooks.
#2 A better breakdown?
There seem to be 2 cases here and some inconsistencies between programmers and front end folks.
So, we have web developer, programmer, and software engineer on the back end. On the front end we should use front end developer. This is the common term usage.
When get drupal specific we sometimes see cases like drupal developer. The front end similar term would be themer.
One set is generic and the other is drupal skills specific.
#3 typos
expect in drupal => except in drupal
Font End => Front End - twice ;-)
#4 oops
Thanks. I fixed them in the post.
#5 Developers & Programmers
When I started at Palantir, those who worked on themes were "developers" and those who worked on the backend were "programmers". Having always had a title that ended in developer or engineer, I found being a programmer hard to swallow. But based on discussions like this, I think the naming convention is a good one.
#6 I like engineer
Coming from a background as an electrical engineer I still find developer or programmer hard to swallow. In my last job with the title engineer, I worked as a software engineer, my boss had an overlooked saying.... "I can hire programmers cheap. I want engineers to architect solutions."
Personally, I prefer to craft solutions which is software or web engineering.
#7 Big +1 for using industry
Big +1 for using industry standard terminology!
#8 Front End Themer
Why not meet in the middle? Front End Themer
That way it is specific for Drual yet having Front End in the name will let the industry at large have an idea of what the title means.
#9 No context for themer
3 Thoughts...
1) Why have our own term at all? It just makes things more confusing.
2) When people are searching on Google there's a difference between Front End Developer and Front End Themer. If we want to point the front end developers of the world back to drupal we need to use the vernacular (common language).
3) See #2 again. It deserves to be listed again.
#10 +1 industry standard
Industry standard terms should be used IMO. Drupal already has an issue with non-standard naming conventions which give an exaggerated impression of its learning curve. This perception is a big hurdle when it comes to adoption and hiring. I think any competent front-end developer should be able to get started on Drupal theming within a day.
#11 Descriptive?
The problem is that "front end developer" generally means "HTML and/or CSS guru". To really get the most out of Drupal's display layer, you do need to know a non-trivial amount of PHP. You don't need to be an expert, but you do need to know some PHP, or else work with someone who does. So is it really descriptive? That's like saying that module writers are "database developers" because they are interacting with the database a lot. There's a lot more than SQL that you need to know to code for Drupal.
#12 Web designer
In my experience, front end developer refers to somebody with HTML, CSS, some JS and sufficient PHP for template-level display logic - they will typically have worked with either PHP templates or some system like Smarty in other frameworks. (I'm slightly on a mission to eliminate the need to work with template.php as it drives up the PHP requirement there which I think is a barrier to enterprise adoption.) I would usually call someone with just HTML and CSS a web designer. Not sure if that's more a UK thing though.
#13 Front end developer
For me, "designer" and "front end developer" are not necessarily interchangeable. I consider myself both a front end developer and a back end developer (if that's the terminology you want to use). I'm well versed in client languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, but also server languages like PHP, Java, C#, etc. While I can use Photoshop, Illustrator, and other programs enough take what is given to me and chop it up, I certainly don't have the kind of knowledge a designer has (on things like colors and various art concepts).
Really though I guess it comes down to the workflow. In the projects I work on, I'm often working with a designer who turns over .ai and .psd files which I then dissect. I'm responsible for both module development and theme development. From my perspective, a front end developer is intimately familiar with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, because all of them are necessary to create the final front end experience.
#14 change the name, same debate
So, let's drop the name themer and the debates about themer vs. designer.
We can drop the name but the debate(s) will likely continue.
#15 Theming talent
..works for me ;)
#16 themer vs. designer
Trying to state the obvious here so that we do not lose site of it:
A themer sounds like someone who builds themes, which most people think of as re-usasble visual design templates.
A designer sounds like someone who creates original designs. In the recent past (and still often but not always in the present), a web designer typically designs the look and architecture of a web site and also builds it.
A developer sounds like someone who develops new functionality via programming.
Because Drupal does keep content and presentation strictly separate, and because Drupal has phptemplate and the ability to insert css and php into nodes, blocks, views etc stored in the database, there is a lot of flexibility but also more complexity that blurs the above job descriptions and renders their use problematic.
...so it's probably best just to say more specifically what you do or what you need someone to do...if you know :)
#17 Jargon
Let's throw some other terms into the mix.
Programmer - someone who writes software.
Software Engineer - Someone who write, architects, and designs software.
Sometimes I think we take developer to mean programmer or engineer. When I think to the term developer I think of the person who actually builds it out. Whether they build out the front end or build out the software. So, a front end developer is the person that builds out the front end. That could be straight xhtml or html5, JavaScript, or CSS.
Just like with a back end developer, there are areas of speciality. Some are good with database abstractions, some are good with writing parsers, and so on. Front end has the same types of things. Some are good with JavaScript.
But, you do bring up a good point. My issue is more with the term themer than anything else. Maybe we should embrace the term web designer as well. I'm all about embracing the common terms rather than our own jargon.
#18 Themer vs. Designer
"A themer sounds like someone who builds themes, which most people think of as re-usasble visual design templates. A designer sounds like someone who creates original designs."
I've always seen it a little differently. I think it's worth mentioning there are two very different (although often overlapping) skill sets wrapped up in the term "Designer." On one side you have someone with the visual foresight to envision what will be. (This can be layout, color, typography, UX, etc.) Some look up to them as an "Artists" or down on them as a "Photoshop Jockeys." Never the less, this is much different process than the Themer who writes the front end code which implements the design.
Again, the vast majority of folks who are proficient in one area, by necessity, have learned to become at least adequate with the other.
Blessings! -NP
#19 but themer's aren't front end developers
"Front end developer" usually implies strong JavaScript skills. I think most Drupal themers don't have that. Drupal developers usually do the JS.
#20 web designer
Great point. I'm more for throwing out the term themer (our own jargon). Maybe we need to add another common term in. The web designer.
#21 Another +1
'Themer' is a term that we have had a hard time explaining to designer types 'theming' our drupal sites. I am mostly met with a blank stare when I first mention theming to designers new to Drupal.
In my opinion, this is Drupal-specific jargon carrying a significant cognitive load to designers proficient in HTML/CSS. We could do without this layer that adds cognitive complexity when we are trying to welcome more designers into the fold.
The debate will likely always continue, but there is also the fact that conventions and common terms exist on the web for a purpose - they represent the ways online communities have resolved concepts and ideas for promoting a greater common understanding. They may not be sacrosanct, but they do make our communication a lot easier.
As to whether front end developer is descriptive enough or specific enough for Drupal, that's probably something to be addressed through education, after we have made it easier/attractive for designers to get into drupal. Personally, I have found the more experienced front end developers I have worked with to be really proficient in at least Smarty and they don't seem to find it difficult at all to step up and learn PHPtemplate.
+ 1 again for Front End Developer, especially in the context of all the attention the design community is getting these days in Drupal.