First up — Great Article. I really appreciate the time and effort and honesty spent in writing this CSS War Story. It’s a great way to learn Best Practices from those who’ve been there.

You say in your article:

I asked the designer who created the above pull request: “Would you say that when you got involved with code it changed the way you designed? or the way you thought about it?” His response:

100000000%, One of the best things I’ve done I think. Makes you a more informed, logical and efficient designer. And it means you come to the table with ideas you know will work.

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I agree that it is a great advantage for a Designer to have CSS/HTML/JS skills, but for me a risk lies in exactly what was said by the Designer, i.e.

… it means you come to the table with ideas you know will work

I feel that this can sometimes limit the boundaries of where Designers will go with concepts. As a web developer turned Designer myself, I sometimes have to remind myself to reign in concerns around what the current available technologies used will and won’t support.

I don’t think that a good Design idea shouldn’t be shelved because it may not immediately easily slot into the existing app.