Visto a questão do developer ou do designer já vir a ser discutida há um tempo, deixo aqui um excerto de um livro que ando a ler, com o qual concordo muito! (peço desculpa por não traduzir, mas o tempo é escasso)
"The labels “designer” and “developer” may have sufficed in the early days of the Web when we were all still trying to make sense of this new and exciting medium. More than a decade since, we have discovered that the medium is not entirely new and that it does not exist in a vacuum, separate from all that came before it and all that exists alongside it.
Today, the “designer” and “developer” labels do not tell you much about what a person is or what a person does. And yet they are frequently used to describe both.
As a description of job function, these labels are woefully inadequate in detail. What type of design work do you do? What is your function on the team? Do you do graphic design, or motion graphics design, or information design (architecture), or object design (modeling)? By lumping graphic designers, information architects, animators, and illustrators under the huge catch-all category of “designer,” you strip that label of any meaning whatsoever.
The role of the “developer”—at least in a Flash context—appears to be somewhat better defined.
You can assume to some degree of accuracy that the person’s job involves building user interfaces and, more than likely, programming.
Where these titles lack the necessary granularity in describing job function, one thing is certain:
They are overly restrictive when it comes to describing who a person is. “I am a designer,” for example, is often used to justify time not spent learning to program. Similarly, “I can’t draw a straight line” is an oft-used excuse by “developers” to rationalize a lack of invested time in learning the basics of graphic, motion graphics, and user interface design. (Contrary to popular belief, many of the best graphic and motion graphics designers in the world couldn’t draw a very impressive straight line either if given an easel and brush; similarly, some of the most talented artists I know couldn’t design a passable user interface layout to save their lives.)"