Why Designers Should Learn How to Code

This is still something that is hot out there in the design world, now as much as it has been in the past it is still a topic that some debate and other’s accept as part of their role as a graphic designer or as a web designer. Its not uncommon for a new client to assume that because they are hiring a web designer that that person also know’s code, most don’t realize that there is a different between a designer and a developer many assume that they are one and the same and at one point in time they could be, but with the web as it now stands and is going the two fields are not one and the same as they first started out oh so many years ago.

I learned to code in basic HTML in the early years of the internet and I can still hand code to this day when it comes to basic HTML, but the more advance CSS and HTML5 stuff well lets say I can work with it, but coding it from scratch off the top of my head, it is not something that I can do anymore because its grown so much and evolved to a degree that its outside of my area. But doesn’t mean that I don’t at least understand some of what needs doing and it doesn’t mean that I can’t edit a few areas within existing code to degrees (because I can and do, its just not my area of field that I profess to know as someone who is a trained coder).

The article on the Instant Shift site called Why Designers Should Learn How to Code is a decent article, yes its posted back in 2011 so is many regards out of date, but the basics of the info are still relevant today as they were back then and well worth looking over as to why knowing basic code can be of help to your skill set then knowing nothing at all.

Being able to show a client something to which they are looking for can go a long way in getting that contact or keeping that job – knowing when to delegate to someone who is a coder isn’t a bad thing and can actually work in your favour as well since you know what is needed and can actually higher someone to work with you as a sub contractor or the like for that project, or if at company you can at least talk with the people with some knowledge behind you so you don’t sound uninformed.

Take care and post more in short order.

Posted in Web Design.