Full Stack Design

I've often struggled to come up with an appropriate description or title that accurately reflects my skillset. Recently, I've seen the term “Full Stack Design” being used, and I've wrestled with whether it's a legitimate term or not, but I've decided to use it. Here's why.

I've been doing web design for a long time, and back in the day, designers had to take on the full responsibility of a variety of roles, such as branding, information architecture, wireframing, user interface design (PSDs, etc.), and front-end development (HTML, CSS, JS). As a result, we had to learn these disciplines while on the project, and we excelled in some areas while struggling in others.

As the web has matured, we've seen designers and developers move into more specialized roles. Now, larger web-centric companies might have dedicated user experience designers and front-end developers. However, there is still a set of designers who possess all these skills in one package. They're able to move between and across these disciplines on a daily basis, and we could call them “Full Stack Designers.”

Is this just another catchy title or buzzword? It may be, but I believe the current environment warrants this title, and we should have no issue using it.