Every year, I look forward to the ‘web designer’s Advent calendar’, 24 Ways. I’ve picked up a few great tips (or have been inspired by the bleeding-edge explorations) shared each year by some of the top web designers and developers in the industry.

The articles are usually super.

Usually.

In December 16th’s installment of this year’s ‘calendar’, “How to Make Your Site Look Half-Decent in Half an Hour” developer Anna Powell Smith suggested some quick and dirty ways for programmers to prettify their site. These ‘tips’ were vague at best, including using Twitter Bootstrap, webfonts, and some ‘fancy CSS’ – all with no suggestion as to why one ought to employ these devices beyond simply ‘making it look half-decent’.

From a designer’s point of view, Anna’s article undermines and disrespects the great consideration that designers put in to creating sites and applications that are useful, relevant, and delightful. The article is unapologetic in relegating aesthetic considerations to the realm of afterthought.

Aral Balkan does everyone a great service in his response, “Design is Not Veneer“, by detailing, point-by-point, just how destructive – rather than constructive – Anna’s article really is.

But more fundamentally, as Aral explains, the greatest disservice of Anna’s article is that it perpetuates a long-standing myth about the designer / developer divide, i.e. that it exists at all.

Simply: if you’re creating websites, then you’re a designer. To be good at your craft, and if you’re truly concerned about creating sites that are user-centered and relevant, you should put the necessary time in to learning the craft of design as it extends beyond code and function.

I won’t waste any more of my time or yours – just read Aral’s post, all of it.