

Why Designers Should Code - skorks
http://carsonified.com/blog/uncategorized/5-good-reasons-why-designers-should-code/

======
GBKS
Personally I prefer a designer who understands code but focuses on design.
Designing and coding are both full-time professions when you work at a high
level. Focusing on one of them allows you to achieve better results in the
field.

A good process can ensure that designers and developers find solutions
together that both look great and are reasonable to implement. Main thing, as
with many things, is just good communication and an open mind on in all sides.

Same way that a printed designer doesn't own and control the printers that the
final designs are printed on. However, they do understand the properties of
different types of paper and effects of different printing techniques.

------
btilly
Add yet another reason. Designers who can code know the cost of the pretty
frills they add to their designs, and so naturally can select pretty designs
that will be easier to actually render in HTML.

~~~
tibbon
This is hugely important. I wish I could +1 you 10x.

Understanding what you can do in CSS and what will require an image file or
javascript to work is pretty important in designing an efficient site. I've
seen designers with pretty looking ideas that are really difficult to
implement. They say, "but you can do it right?" and it can be done, but they
don't realize what they are asking for.

~~~
kowen
I once was asked to help a designer make her own webpage. She made everything
circular... and the menu rotated. _sigh_

------
fnid2
Are there still web designers who don't know how to code HTML and CSS? I
haven't come across one in a while and would probably _never_ hire one, so
that's reason enough to learn how to code.

~~~
tibbon
Yea- we've got a guy working with us now that lives only in Photoshop. He
doesn't do illustration, he doesn't do animation, he doesn't code- just
Photoshop and design. I'm not 100% certain that this is for the best. Many of
his designs are difficult to implement and I feel that a stronger
understanding of the code would help his designs a lot.

~~~
tjogin
True, definitely, I absolutely agree.

But have you not also worked with coders who are fundamentally inept at
design, making it seem like they're almost _blind_? I know I have, but for
some reason we seem to more often accept this kind of very similar lack of
tangential skill level.

~~~
tibbon
Right- the argument on the other side of the aisle is, "coders don't know
anything about design and produce nothing but horridly ugly pages". They cite
a few programmers that didn't meet some art-school design standard about font
spacing and then want to take away the ability to effect design from the
coders at all.

Functional and elegant rarely equate to a designer as they do to a coder. For
example, I know that many of them would really dislike Hacker News. Not
enough, "pop" or "zing" to it.

~~~
tjogin
Design isn't pop and zing (I'm aware of the reference). Design is not a coat
of paint. Maybe you're just joking, but it doesn't matter because even if you
_are_ , there is no lack of programmers who _don't_ have any better of design
fundamentals than exactly that poor an understanding.

My point is simply that before we complain about designers lack of coding
ability, perhaps we should first educate those in our own trade about the
fundamentals of design — because coders are no better at this. Glasshouses,
and all that.

------
gkoberger
I would say coders should design, too.

Sure, they don't have to be great designers (much like designers don't need to
know anything more than HTML and CSS).

However, a good programmer can create really bad software if they don't know
anything about design. Many of the same "reasons" from this article can be
applied to programmers designing, too.

~~~
btilly
I would disagree. There are a _lot_ of different kinds of coders out there,
and many should not waste their time learning anything about visual design.

For instance I find myself in back end roles. Take my current job. That is a
mix of analyzing software for what needs to be monitored, writing said
monitoring, and fixing or escalating when said monitoring indicates that
something has gone wrong.

Nothing I do comes anywhere near anything resembling an end user. So what
point is there in my learning about graphic design?

On the other hand every good person I know who does front end development also
knows something of design. If for no other reason than to establish a common
language with the designer.

But taking your point one step farther, I think it is important that everyone
learn something about the jobs of the people we interact with every day.

------
adelevie
Does HTML+CSS really count as coding?

When I read the title I assumed it referred to HTML+CSS gurus and why they
should learn javascript + some server side languages + databases.

~~~
simonw
Yes. You're assembling sequences of characters which tell a computer to do
something. Those characters are then processed by a lexer and a parser, turned
in to an abstract syntax tree of some sort and used to generate a result. Just
because the languages you are using are declarative rather than procedural
doesn't make them not "code". And if you're writing code, I'd say you're
coding.

~~~
adelevie
If you want to be that technical, writing this comment is "coding". I'm
encoding into English sentences, and you, the reader, decodes into thoughts.
Designing in photoshop is also coding. The designer encodes the "look" of a
web site into an image, the image is then decoded by the user in that the
design "makes sense".

I'd say a more logical cut off point is between presentation and business
logic. Presentation includes html, css, photoshop. Business logic is server-
side scripting and databasing.

------
tripngroove
I think the biggest reason designers should learn to code is this:

Knowing how to build a web page lets you begin to grok how the web works. A
better understanding the medium will produce better results, in general.

In practice, however, in a startup working on an app of sufficient complexity,
it's not scalable for the creative to be designing and coding at the same
time. More time spent fidgeting with HTML means less time iterating on UX and
aesthetics. At some point, someone needs to completely own the design.

My personal experience is that a prolific dev team will easily backlog you
with features that need UI. I often have to run with my first or second mock-
up because time is so critical.

All that said, I can't agree more that designers should learn to code. Print
isn't dead yet, but at some point it has to get there. Being fluent in new
media is about survival.

------
japherwocky
I hated his architecture analogy and I commented on that post as well:

A real architect can build his design. An architect has to learn to build
before she learns to design.

I just think that's a profoundly different thing

------
godDLL
_I think it’s odd that some Web Designers can’t code their own designs[…]_

How can I make a `0_o` take up half a page? Oh, right, HTML is sanitized in HN
comments.

Who dare call themselves anything shorter than "Graphical Designer for the
Web" and not be able to mark up, not even code, but _mark up_ their own
designs?

 _Many people view code as a restriction to a designer but when I learnt to
code I found it liberating. Far from being a restriction, it opened up a whole
new realm of creative possibilities._

Code is language. Code is math. Code is both, and none of the above.

Code is a natural extension of thought, same as with language and math. It
belongs in the same category as these two. I think _everyone_ should code,
it'd do much good to absolutely anybody doing anything anywhere where their
job includes using gray matter.

------
choward93
I learned to code before I took up the design end. I always keep in mind in
how to code the site when I design, and it makes an over all trouble-free
experience when I get to work on the code. But I learn all the time that a
simple design aspect can be a bear to code, something that I wouldn't think
about if I didn't have to code it.

------
coryl
So, who shouldn't learn to code?

