US to require licenses for designers

Found an interesting article about licensing designers. Makes some legitimate points. Any thoughts?

April Fools

Do you think that I’ll be fooling myself if I tried to get one even if I’m not from the US? :shifty:

:smiley:

I dont see any reason for that, a good designer is recognised by his skill, a paper doesnt make you a good one.

This would create an opportunity to bring the craft back to a professional standard and my even create some jobs.

:lol:

Good one.

April Fool’s nonsense aside, certification is one reason why master plumbers and electricians make more money than master web developers. As long as we have untalented jacklegs who will work for less than minimum wage in the market, the prices we can command will be lower than they should be.

kind of pointless IMHO. A good designer does a good job. period.

This is just lead to more solo outsourcing.

kind of pointless IMHO. A good designer does a good job. period.

Michael makes a good point though: there have always been good/talented plumbers and electricians too.

I waver on the idea of certification. On the one hand I notice how many more types of (good) individuals become very knowledgeable in the field of IT and are able to get jobs based on what they know rather than a paper (whereas if you’re good at anything else, without that paper you usually can’t find anything); on the other hand the low-end knowledge-poor can get decent clients because web design is a lemon market: clients don’t have anything to be able to distinguish good developers from bad, unless they themselves already know enough code to be able to look under the hood and see if there’s quality there. That’s one reason for certification (the other simply showing you know laws pertaining to things like safety… this is actually why electricians and radiation technologists need certification, not so much proof they can wire something well or take a good x-ray).

I’d like to see most of the designers I’ve dealt with become certified, but not in the way described by the article.

I don’t understand what you mean… what kind of certification would you ask for? Creativity?

See definition 4: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/certified

Usage example

That’s the meaning that I thought was used in the article: meeting a certain standard

Definition 4?

  1. To declare to be in need of psychiatric treatment or confinement.

I gave you two links to make it clear. :lol:

… you made my jump a bit. Joking aside a strongly feel some regulation needs to be placed. Can anybody start building a house? In theory yes, but you still need a building permit and to abide by property building regulations. That being said I feel some regulation might be a good thing. This will not only weed out any cowboys, but it will assist clients to know what to look for as they will now have a form of regulation to go by.

Wow - never thought an April Fools joke would lead to a serious discussion :smiley:

Off Topic:

You know I need my time to get stuff… sometimes, I can be a bit slow… and I guess I took it to seriously :wink:

Humor is a very serious affair. :wink:

Funny how most people think a Web Designer and a Web Developer are the same thing - actually most people have never heard of a Web Developer and seem to think stuff just gets up on the web instantly - as soon as the designer is finished with it. Yet they understand that someone who designs cars doesn’t build them.

Charles
aka Web Developer

Heck, I had no idea about that! :shifty:

I guess most people just want a car, and don’t care how it came to be, or want a hamburger, and don’t think about the screams and blood of the slaughterhouse. They also just want a website, and don’t care how it comes about. ‘Web designer’ has come to be a general term for those who don’t really know what’s involved.