[nkrisc]

I see where you're coming from but I disagree on a few points. I work as a UX designer, designing web UI. I should understand and consider how the design will flex when the browser is resized (and understand what's possible). I have a good understanding of what will be trivial to implement versus what will require an extra week of development for little gain. I need to understand how the web works so I can think about how the site will work on a bad connection, how it will work when the request times out, how the data that powers the site is shaped and the implications of that.

The web is my medium and how can I effectively design for the entire experience (not just how it looks) if I don't understand how the web fundamentally works?

[golergka]

I don't think that we really have something to disagree on here. Web and app designers like you are more technically and design-oriented; however, I'm talking about game development, where these roles require much more pure "art" skills: you don't use simple material design here, you actually draw all the real-looking materials (in the artistic style of the whole project) and characters and every little shiny detail.

[nkrisc]

Perhaps I misinterpreted your comment then. But all the same, my work is not simply applying material design to websites. We're creating our own branding and "art", but still we have to distill that down into something that can actually be implemented by a developer. Early on we do all kinds of crazy stuff but we always have to be thinking about how we'll bring it back down to Earth and how it will be used and experienced.