Recently, I’ve kept coming across tons of discussions about the web design industry. One of the most heated debates I read is whether designers should know how to code.
Some say they’re designers (obviously, the title already told it all), they just do the design and let the coders code. On the contrary, others assume that designers should be familiar with the development process cause most job openings nowadays have called for designers to be proficient in several programming languages.
Let’s Find Out Designers Should Know How to Code?
Ok, I know it’s a never-ending argument. Everyone has their own points. But, wait a minute. Maybe we did put the question in the wrong meaning. It shouldn’t be, “should designers code?” but rather, “Designers should know how to code” and “How much code should they know?”.
Imagine you are doing a project but you can’t communicate clearly and effectively with your developers, how can your design become more realistic and less subject to changes?
By equipping yourself with a solid foundation in coding, you and your programmers can speak a common language and be able to understand each other. Knowing how to code not only broadens your knowledge but also can go a very long way.
How Much Code Should Designers Know?
Believe it or not, if you are not ahead of the times, you are behind them. While you’re reading this article, tech employers out there are already looking for unicorns who are designers knowing how to code. With that in mind, the following are some “a piece of cake” guidelines that can help you to “know code enough to be awesome”.
1. Get familiar with basic HTML, CSS
When it comes to building a website, you can’t avoid mentioning HTML and CSS.
- HTML is the main language used to write webpages and used by your browser to display your site to the user. In short, it allows the system to know what is supposed to be an image, and what is supposed to be a text copy.
- CSS is used to format the look and feel of a website, separate from the actual content of the web page. It allows for things like the color of text, the background, the shape, the size, and the position of all different parts of a page to be set.
If you master HTML and CSS, you’ll be able to code up any web design you can dream of. How wonderful! There are plenty of online resources to learn - HTML and CSS. I recommend you start your coding journey with these great sites: Khan Academy and Codecademy. Both sites provide free, interactive, and highly structured courses on HTML and CSS.
Recommended read: 12 Free HTML5 Resources to Learn for Newbies
2. Learn JavaScript
If you want to be the coolest kid in the web world, do not ignore JavaScript!
Speaking of the web, we can avoid mentioning the browsers and the browsers mean running JavaScript. Pages without JavaScript are rather bland, whereas JavaScript-laced sites allow for animation and better control over the web interface. Master at least basic JavaScript so that you understand the way the language works.
There are a lot of great JavaScript resources out there. Lucky for you, I have pulled together a huge list of resources that will help you get started with JavaScript. Give it a shot. Why not?
Recommended read: 10 Best Resources to Learn Javascript for Beginners
3. What next?
It’s time to get your hands dirty! As I always said before, you will be the best and more solid when you’re fighting with a real-world enemy. Watching or reading the course won’t help you learn the most but taking the time to try it out, and practice it in real code will do.
To create a website. Maybe a couple. Make them look nice. If you fail, oh dear everybody fails for the first time, just do it again. Failure isn’t permanent, quitting is.
Recommended read: 20 Web Design Tools for Different Types of Web Design Software
Final Words for Designers
After all, you have nothing to lose but a chance to win.
To be honest, coding isn’t for everyone. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that designers should never learn code. If you can’t code, that’s totally fine. You are a designer, just go back to doing the stuff you are good at. But, if you are thinking of giving coding a try (I presume you are here for that reason), then don’t hesitate to go for it. It will give you a chance to dominate the web world.
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