I’ve always envisioned web designers to be the artists of the geek world, and constantly at odds with the programmers their inevitably bound to work with in their professional careers.  When I started building computer applications several decades ago, there wasn’t a whole lot of thought given to the usability side of the computer programs.  As long as they did the core work of what they had to do, and produced reams of useful reports then most people where happy. But, once we began developing more and more online applications, then designing an efficient and ascetically pleasing screen display became more of a concern.  I believe the early building blocks of good web design came from these early days.  There wasn’t a lot of screen real estate to work with, or the flexibility that designers have today, so we had to be a lot more creative back then.

That’s not to say, that good web sites are easy to come up with these days.  While the power of computers certainly gives designers more tools and options at their disposal, it also means that they need to understand what all those tools do, and how to use them appropriately.  It’s quite easy for an amateur these days to throw too many fonts, colors, buttons, widgets, and other fancy gadgets onto a web page and call themselves a web designer.  To really make the best use of the screen real estate available, and ensure a simple and productive user experience, you really need to be both a skilled artist and technical wizard these days.