1. Would I be a better designer to work with if I knew coding myself? No, that would probably be worse—we dislike BAD programmers. ;) However, you should have complete mastery of CSS/HTML. 4. If there was one thing that you could instill in all designers with the wave of a magic wand, what would it be? All developers think they are decent designers, so you’ve really got to sell us on the fact that you know better than we do what will be well-received by the audience. Remind us often that “the user is not you”. 6. What’s the most helpful thing a designer can do before handing over design files? Just be sure it’s consistently formatted! 8. Is it a mistake to make the lead developer the project manager? Of course it is. …It’s sometimes not possible to find a viable alternative, however. 9. How can I get the developer to give me an absolute answer on whether something is doable? You can’t! Developers are optimists by nature… they’ll say anything can be done, given enough time. It’s up to the project manager to determine which juice is worth the squeeze.

The other questions struck me as less helpful… but maybe that’s because I’m a developer. ;)

While I believe designers/developers really have to choose one side to specialize in (otherwise you’ll just be mediocre or outright bad in both), I’m also a designer with a programming background, and I think it’s really important for a designer to not only have a handle on HTML/CSS but understand programming principles. It only helps when figuring out how to make the design work best with the underlying function.

Holy crap, I made the weekly! Go me.

While I think Criterion does great things, I can’t imagine watching any of their movies online. It just seems like the films they choose deserve to at least be watched on DVD, you know?