Should a designer be in charge of mapping out the user experience of a website?

In my opinion, a developer should draw out how the website would work, what pages link to what etc. Then the designer designs the website based on this.

But I've heard some people say designers are the best people to work out the User Experience of a website.

Very confused about this!

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Yes. No. Maybe.

There are designers who are great at figuring out interaction design and information architecture. There are developers who are great at it. There are specialised information architects who focus on it almost entirely. Often, the best results come when all of them come together to pool their knowledge of the subject.

Give the responsibility to the members of the team who can do the best job with it, don't pigeon hole people based on their job titles.

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Both

User experience as a whole is affected by both ascetics (the designer) and proper functionality (the developer).

Having just one or the other won't cut it so attempting to define it in one silo won't cut it either.

I see UX designs work best when it is mutually defined and agreed upon by both the designer and developer.

We'll work out the user stories, make heavy use of whiteboards, etc. Working together until we're both satisfied.

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