What about designers who can code? I think that's a major consideration in hiring a web designer.
If you get one who can't code, how well do they understand what is possible or easy in the browser? How well will they work with the coder you have to hire?
A lot of times you can get a decent frontend person who designs and codes for less than you can hire a coder and a designer.
Depends on what you want them to code. Any great designer who works on the web can write HTML & CSS, else they're not a great designer. If you want them to know Rails, Python, or PHP and help you with middle-tier integration, then that's probably a more difficult task.
"Any great designer who works on the web can write HTML & CSS, else they're not a great designer."
Couldn't disagree more. I've worked with so many amazing interactive designers at agencies who didn't know much about coding but because of the division of labor managed to execute some killer sites.
I'm not arguing that designers like myself shouldn't know code but rather that amazing web designers who don't know code do exist.
You can't design for the web (or for any medium) without knowing its constraints. If a "web designer" doesn't know HTML or CSS then how can they adequately design for the web as a platform when they don't know how it works?
At my old company, we taught designers contraints about web elements and what could typically be styled and executed. This relationship between front-end dev and web designer was pretty key. I never coded but because of my usage of the web, I knew the constraints.
Those designers ended up designing some of the most used sites in the United States.
When working at an agency, one rarely ever touches code because the client either has a team to deal with it OR there are full-time front-end devs.
But hey, if those designers who multiplied revenue for ecommerce sites and increased viewership for content sites are bad web designers, then I'll take those scrubs anyday.
I've seen a lot of "web designer" who treat a website like a regular printing product. Only really understanding the constrains and the possibilities enables you to stuff that is really built for the web, not adapted to it. I think it would be rather unlikely for a designer w/o any coding expirience to think of stuff like this: http://www.designmadeingermany.de/magazin/5/
Depends on if they have web design experience. Numerous agencies employ web designers with no coding experience who have a lot of experience with doing major site work.
Personally, I prefer hiring stellar web designers and stellar front-end devs than trying to find someone who can do both to same degree (since it's extremely hard to find).
Well, the more you expect from a single person the more you'll need to pay them.
If you want to find a designer that can create your logo, design your UI, and code the HTML/CSS/JS on top of that (and who's good at all three), expect to spend a lot of time searching for them, and once you'll find them they won't be cheap.
If you get one who can't code, how well do they understand what is possible or easy in the browser? How well will they work with the coder you have to hire?
A lot of times you can get a decent frontend person who designs and codes for less than you can hire a coder and a designer.