- Should designers learn to code?
This is the age-old question, in the tech industry,
isn't it?
As a designer, do you have to know HTML CSS, JavaScript?
Do you have to build all your websites from scratch
to really be considered a web designer?
I used to just say flat out that no
designers do not need to know how to code.
And I've changed my mind on this over the past few years,
I believe now, that learning to code,
at least getting a basic understanding of HTML
and CSS is like understanding the materials
in which your final design will be built.
It helps you to better understand the limitations of it,
what's possible, even expand your mind as well
and give you some new ideas of things you could try
because you know what's possible in code,
and I think it helps
with developer-designer relationships as well.
So my answer to this,
should design is learn to code question recently,
has been, you don't have to, but it helps.
In the interview that I did recently with
Julia Jaskólska, who is the senior marketing designer
at Buffer, this topic came up as it naturally does
in many conversations about web design,
and I thought she had a really interesting take on it.
So let's roll the clip.
And what does your collaboration process look like together?
How do you work with the developer
and what have you found to be some, I don't know,
useful ways of getting,
cause something we always struggle
with as designers, right, is taking the design
from our design software to the web,
and like, I don't know,
there's always something that looks different,
but things that you do to minimize any of those differences?
- Yeah. I actually think that
our relation with developer is super important
and this is something that we, as designers,
should always work.
I'm actually in the group that thinks we aren't designers,
we don't have to code.
Actually, maybe we shouldn't, but
I think that-
- Another hot take.
- But I think that it's important for us to know the power
and limitation of certain solutions that we come up.
So actually for me, Webflow is a great tool,
it's no go-to, but I know what we can do,
And I know-
- Yes.
- what is time-consuming.
I try to loop developers early.
So they also can like come up with your own ideas.
Like I wanted the developer to be partially a designer
and I also want me to be partially a developer.
So it doesn't mean like I have to code, but I-
- You understand it.
- there has to be like, some overlap.
So I tried to loop them early.
I don't want to have like a waterfall effect that, okay,
this is really designed. This is a package.
There you go. Because then
developer, they don't know what they are building,
why they're building.
And I think this is important that developers not only like
the constructor or something that we do,
they should know what problem we are solving because they
have completely different mindset, at least from mine.
And, and they have brand new ideas.
You're super creative people, they know the problems.
And, and so, so, so, so yeah,
I think this relation is super important to be open and to
not be treated like designers, developers like dogs.
So it's not, it's not, it shouldn't be that.
- Yeah. I totally agree with you on that.
I think that it's been super valuable for me to work closely
with our developer to understand if something I'm designing
is going to add to the build time. Then I can be like, well,
it's not really that important. We'll take that bit out or,
you know, just, it makes a lot of sense.
It helps you be more efficient as a design professional
understanding that I think totally agree that you should
really check out this full interview with Julia.
It'll be linked to my card also in the description.
It's the latest episode of my interview
series inside marketing design,
but really like Julia's approach to this.
And I liked that she called out webflow as like a know code
tool that you can actually use to get a good understanding
of code. I liked that Julia said straight up, no,
I do not think designers need to know how to code,
but what she ended up describing was a very similar approach
to what I have on the topic,
which is that designers and developers need to be able to
understand each other's language, right?
I like that she called out as well,
that she likes working with developers who take a creative
approach to it, that developers, and not just constructors,
like banging nails into place,
that they have creative ideas to,
and that you win when it's a true collaboration,
you can talk to the developer about the design.
The developer can talk to you about the code and you can
both understand each other. And that's key, right?
To any working relationship is having a shared understanding
because of my code knowledge,
which is not something I put into practice these days,
to be honest,
but because I have it and because I've done it in the past,
I can give really good, clear,
detailed feedback to the developer that I work with on
changes that need to be made when I'm reviewing a website,
which definitely helps to speed up the process.
I can keep the code in mind as I'm designing,
especially when I'm designing something
on a tighter timeframe.
So I know that if the thing that I'm putting in together and
pixels on the page is going to be really hard to code and
going to really add to the build time I'll put it this way.
I think that learning to code has made me a better designer,
but that if I went any further in
my code development knowledge,
I would be taking the learning time away from my current
focus, which is getting better at design,
getting better at management.
And those are the two like future areas that I see for my
career more than code.
So I'm not continuing to develop that understanding cause I
have the good base in place already.
And I don't feel like I need to go any further.
I would love to hear where you stand on this topic.
Are you a designer who thinks that actually, you don't need
to know a single bit of HTML and CSS to find success?
I know that many designers do.
It's just not what I have managed in my career so far.
Tell me about it. Share a bit down below in the comments.
And if you're a designer who does know how to code,
do you do a lot of it?
Is it like a basic comprehension that you have?
Are you actively coding a lot of the time?
Have you learned through webflow?
Share a bit about it in the comments.
There are so many good like discussion topics that come up
in my inside marketing design interviews.
And this was just one of many from the episode about buffer
that I did with Julia.
Please go check out the full interview.
It is linked on card in description,
InsideMarketingDesign.co or just open up your
favorite podcasting app and search for
inside marketing design.
If you want the audio-only version to listen to on a walk or
a drive or something.
I think topics like these really interesting and important
to talk about, but also as with everything,
like, do what works best for you.
Thanks for watching.
I'm keen to hear your thoughts on this like
hot button topic, which is been a hot topic for
many years now in the tech industry. Yeah.
Share them down below in the comments and I'm just going
to move over to the side so you can watch the full episode
right here. I'll see you over there.
Bye.