Coding Designer

I could be wrong about how I’ve been answering this question, but it feels right to me.

Designers often ask me “Do I need to know how to code?”

And I started answering with an analogy: “If you were going to Spain for a vacation, how much Spanish should you learn? More than “hello?” Or enough to read Don Quixote in its original form?”

Somewhere in between, right? Probably enough to order a taxi, or read a menu. But probably not enough to decipher literature.

If you find that you love it, then by all means go for the gusto.

But when you’re at the table, and you’re responsible for delivering designs and ideas to your developer, knowing enough to talk to them coherently and to roughly understand why they’re say “no” or ask questions is a great start.

For example, if they say “This is really difficult to do because how responsiveness and CSS works from desktop to phones.” You don’t have to imagine all the Matrix in your mind, but roughly knowing that they’re referring to media queries is a start. And you can respond with asking more pointed questions of where your design is causing issues. Instead of assuming they just don’t want to do it, or that they hate your design.