[l9k]

There is a lot of designers that are not that good at design either... Some are just temps, interns, wrongly hired or have switched roles in the company.

And when you target (web) applications, a developer might even have more experience with the UX as a user and designer!

Each case depends on the qualities of the people involved.

[maigret]

Most developers “doing design” don’t only miss some basic skills, like proper need analysis, but plain don’t have the time to deeply analyze the problem. I know the “try it and see if it sticks” methods is popular right now, but monkeys won’t write Shakespeare by chance. I’m not telling that front end developers are not talented at what they do, they do know something very valuable. Their skill is to be able to understand designs as well as designer intents, and get them implemented right.

Now for some side project, of course good front end developers are better than no designer at all. Are they able to design for scale and high revenue? Only when they become full time designers.