In the early 1990s, the world hadn’t yet realized the economic and social potential available to them through the web. People weren’t buying things online. Web designers (in the sense that we know them today) did not exist.

Most of the hired talent were regarded as binary clerical workers, employed by department heads of large organizations, doomed (as I imagine/remember) to windowless, server-filled basements where, as webmasters, they sat waiting for their supervisors to storm down and bark out the next site update.

Then the internet exploded. When organizations realized that customers wanted to be served online, demand for websites and web designers grew.

In a few short years, we went from building static sites for desktop browsers to dynamic web applications for any device in existence. We not only build things people view like brochures, but things that people use.

Like it or not, we are all ambassadors for our field, and it’s our duty as such to have a dialogue with clients about the how and why, not just the what. When we quietly deliver code and pixels with no discussion of objective or strategy, we’re asking to be treated like we belong back in that server-filled basement. But we’re worth more than that.

Trent Walton.