Web designers as product designers

So here's an idea that's been rattling round for a while now. Over the years as an interactive designer if worked witha really diverse range of other designers but one comnmon trait that seems to flow through all these people is the some people get it and some don't. Like some ad peopole dont 'get' digital, some designers don't get digitial. But then some of the designers that to 'get' digital are lousy with typography.

So here's my thinking. There are 2 types of 'web' designer, those that consider themselves 'interactive' designers and those that consider themselves 'graphic' designers. And this informs an approach. Interactive designers will apprach a breif as if it was a product and graphic designers approach brief as if it were a poster.

How it works, what's it's purpose and who uses it come to be the primary questions a product designer asks whereas a graphic designer will being with aesthetics, typography and colour.

Don't get me wrong, neither approach is wrong when applied to web design, but each approach does produce startlingly different results. Creative Director's need to b euilt their teams carefully and clients need to select their agencies carefully.