Understanding how Photoshop works and being able to make some graphics does not mean you will be able to design a usable web app. It takes practice - just like programming.

Not only that, it takes talent. I've been doing HTML/CSS for years, and I still have no idea how to design something great, because I can't visualize what I want -- I only know what I like or don't like after I see it.

That's how I seem to be:- I can create nice elements of a design, but it always comes together to look out of place. The group I work with have a designer in our team who handles design for all our web apps.

Not everyone has time to spend learning how to use photoshop. I'd rather spend 500 bucks to get someone to do it for me than to spend two weeks trying to do it myself. I could make much more than 500 doing the stuff I know in those two weeks.

Exactly - let the professionals do what they can. I am a designer and I could learn how to code a site in Rails or Python, or whatever, in a few weeks but the code would be a mess and the site wouldn't be optimized and I'd waste a ton of time figuring all that out later.

I'd rather pay someone who knows what they're doing and can do it right the first time.

The easier it looks, the harder it is. If clean aesthetic was that easy, there would be more Apple's and fewer poor attempts. But there's not.

That said, let's see some links to your work. :)

His web design work is fairly nice: http://www.streetread.com/about http://www.tweako.com/ Not that this means much to his argument, but still interesting...

i didnt mean anything bad by it at all. i feel having design skills on top of development is huge. especially since im sure there will be plenty more apps down the line - design costs can add up quickly. plus if you do the design yourself you can constantly change it when you want which i find to be really important.

spending a few days looking over simple css and photoshop tutorials can go a long way. most web graphics dont require much photoshoping - just basic techniques.

thanks for the compliments. tweako is hidious - it was an overnight design. streetread is nice but check out the homepage to get the real effect.