That old chestnut: Should designers learn to code?

There has been a rise, for a while now, in the so called ‘unicorn’ in the industry — designers who can also code. But there seem to be a lot of split opinion on what a designer should and shouldn’t be, as well as a plethora of articles written on it already supporting either one or the other view. But none of them featured Napolean Dynamite, so here you go..

Evidently, a designer already has to harness a number of skills and talents you may say, so why add coding — a job that requires an entirely different set of skills and a slightly different way of thinking to the toolbox? Well, Napolean Dynamite has the answer:

But seriously, perhaps what we really need is designers who can design really well and only ever focus on that, and developers who can develop really well and only ever focus on that. Well, in bigger companies, you do get that and it seems to work pretty well. They tend to have a bunch of people who’s specialisms are quite narrow but very thorough. Putting this level of skills together can really work to create something extraordinary.

However, there are a lot of varied work environments and projects where all kinds of issues might arise. Say for example, this cat and mouse game that sometimes happens between team members:

This a standard example how a developer and a designer might not get on, because they don’t quite understand each other and come across certain barriers within their collaborative work. Having a clear, up to date idea on what can be implemented within a certain project requires training and research, otherwise we risk to forever get stuck in Catch 22. It’s about understanding each other when you work with someone as well as your industry, and maybe helping those you work with to achieve that.

However, it is important to keep exploring and searching for new things that could enrich and expand your knowledge and especially right now when we see so much change and so many new things in the digital world. It could result in bettering your work.

It all comes down to how you look at things. If you are interested in learning about code but are ultimately intimidated by it’s apparent complexity. Code is a tool. You could say it is like the soul of a project — it’s what brings it to life.

So perhaps the question isn’t — ‘should designers learn to code?’, but how can code empower designers? And actually, in order to be able to work and somewhat understand how code works, you don’t necessarily need to go and learn all the languages out there. But it’s more about learning to understand what you’re dealing with that is key. It’s all about being aware of the full picture.

But what may the future hold? Are we going to carry on same as we always have? Or perhaps our job titles are going to shift a little bit? Things have been changing and I’m sure they will keep on always changing. I have a few examples of how the industry is shifting at the moment.

Golden Krishna’s book — ‘The best interface is no interface’ really welcomes a new vision of the future of interface, app and web design and really dissects the fundamentals of UX design. For example he talks about things like car key apps and whether we really need an app for that and what interface is really the best interface in this case. Having an app to open a car, a user would have to go through a number of steps, for starters they would need to have their phone with them, then unlock it, and find the app, open it, possibly insert a password again and then try to unlock the car. When actually a car key is just one step — you click a button and your car is open. In his book, Golden summons us to rethink the way we have always done things — do we really need an app for that? Can we work to make a better interface for something working with human reaction and instincts and using artificial intelligence? We may be stuck in the same way of doing something and perhaps it might be time to shake it up.

So actually, the best you can do in your current position is to open yourself up to trying new things. It’s about learning something new to enrich your work and your abilities. So you might be a developer but maybe you’re interested in design or UX and that interest guides you into developing or discovering something new about that field, as you might be looking at it from a different perspective.