The field of web cannot survive without designers & developers who work in a combination to make things happen. But there is one constrain that is always time taking, lacks resource and cause issue when the design meets the logic.

Pure designer know one thing best that is make layouts that look visually pleasing, colors that bring the Wao effect as soon as you see and typography that just compels you to read. Stuff like this does look amazing on photoshop or a jpg mock up but if you some how hand over your baby to developers there is chance the line height might change, correct font might not be used and maybe the little curve that you put on the top disappears. Stuff like this do happen, designers restrain from coding even HTML / CSS while developers restrain from looking into details.

When ever i conducted interviews for design job and asked if they know how to code html / css there was a “no we don’t” answer and strong resistance to such a query, stating it a technical and non creative job. Is coding non creative … then who said “Code is Poetry” a quote written on the footer of wordpress.

I never resisted from coding to xhtml / css / Javascript & using of jQuery as well rather i fell for it, css is like a beauty for my design and a challenge to solve design problems keeping technical details in hand, if web is limited to 4-5 fonts only i know that when i design, if something in css is impossible i would know and might not put that in my design, in my view coding helps designer visualize better and keep the design he build intact with technical constrains. If i know what can be done with jQuery i can make my layout screen that will make use of it as well.

Being a big fan of 37signals there way of working [4 days of work week], there products and the company itself i have been very inspired by there posts specially the one i recently read “Designer who also develop have more power” it raised a very questionable thought in mind and makes a very strong sense on the benefits if a designer can code or a developer who can design. The most compelling benefit is that things getting done quickly, no one is dependent on another.

Here i will put forward two scenarios say a developer receives layouts for an application as big as facebook, now the layout will be probably be 5-10 pages designed in photoshop delivered work begins and developers finds out there are 10 more pages that are quite similar but the data type & its arrangement has changed what should be done … the work comes to an hold and designer is activated again who spends another day in completing those layout sending them over and so on.

Keep the same scenario and convert the developer into a designer / developer so would there be any halt…. would that person be more resourceful and an asset to the company / client he presents ?

The industry that is going to growing rapidly in Pakistan is Information Technology this is the information i got while roaming the internet & stumbled upon a very interesting news posted by Telecom Pk stating a report by Worlbank that states that Pakistan is a golden place for investment in Information Technology. Finally years of handwork seems like might pay off.

A recent World Bank report has declared Pakistan as one of the top favourable economies in the world. The “Doing Business 2008″ report states that Pakistan is in second place compared to other South Asian countries in terms of certain economic indicators, such as: ease of doing business, dealing with licenses, and protecting investors.

Pakistan is quickly emerging as a powerhouse in the region, partly due to its fast paced IT industry. The government’s policies towards foreign investors have also contributed in helping the country stand out. These include 100 per cent foreign equity ownership, 100 per cent repatriation of profits for foreign investors and tax exemption for the sector till 2013.

Though it is a fact Govt. and the current environment clearly shows how Information Technology is going to boost. We are sitting on a dot com bubble (though i restrain from using the word bubble as they usually burst) but it is a fact the Information technology is going to boom. Many hurdles in the past for such boom in IT has been removed there is vast amount of office space available at least in Lahore, high speed Internet available in few call with comparatively good customer service, finding technical staff is quite easy as well but finding quality/efficient staff is a little difficult to. …. no doubt a positive news and a positive change in our era …

PS: If any outside investors looking to setup an IT operation in Pakistan get in touch with me i can consult and help setup everything :)