Responsive Mini Site
Case Study | Responsive | Mini Site| Solo Project
Doing it all by myself.
Overview
Due to only having 2 weeks left of class. As a class, we wanted to have more understanding of several different topics before we graduated. Feeling that 2 weeks wasn’t enough time to create personal projects. Our teacher decided he would assign each of us one topic we wanted to learn more about and research and create a responsive minisite and present our topic to our class.
I was given HTML/CSS. It is a topic that has always interested me and one that is increasingly getting more and more popular due to the increasing amount of job titles that seem to require a designer to learn HTML/CSS.
Instead of focusing on teaching the class HTML/CSS I noticed early on in my research that would have been a more futile effort. Instead, I went back to basics and wanted to answer a question that I could go through the UX process with.
The question I came up with was:
Do UX Designers need to learn how to code? Why or Why not?
Research
At the start of this project, I bought a journal to help me with my decisions.
To write about why I made a decision to help with the writing of this case study.
I also used other methods to go through my research phase of what do UX Designers need to know about coding, and why or why not should they learn to code.
This method helped me keep track of the questions I was asking and helped me to pinpoint what I wanted to research.
Through the research, I had found quite a few posts on the subject. After sifting through all the information I wanted to do some interviews to have a more understanding of the issue.
Interviews
After figuring out the questions I wanted to ask off I went to find people to interview. Looking back I wish I had also interviewed some of my classmates to have a more of a range of ideas on the subject but unfortunately, I hadn’t thought of it at the time.
I interviewed 4 people — 3 UX Designers of varying experience level and 1 Front-end Developer. I recorded them from my phone with their permission and received some valuable information.
All of my UX Designers felt like learning to code would most definitely help in a UX career. Mainly so that communication and workflow could run smooth, due to having the empathy of what the other does. It is an extremely important tool to grasp due to both understanding the limits of design and helping to bridge that gap of trust between Designer and Developer.
This finding helped validate some of the research I had done on the question:
“Should UX Designers learn to code? and why?”
All of this seemed to point to the fact that UX Designers should learn to code, it made sense anyway a great quote I found on the topic went a little like this
“Artists have known for centuries that the best work comes from a mastery of the medium in which one works. And our medium is code.” Stephen Megargee
While I totally agreed with this statement, I also wanted to see the reverse of the question at hand would be. Thus I started researching why shouldn’t a UX Designer learn to code.
More Research
The research here was limited but clear. Also, my feedback with my interviews also validated the information I found as well. The basic clear understanding that both User-Experience Design and any Development are HUGE fields of learning both taking years to master and so expecting one to be a proficient in both is just asking that person to fail in both of them. Through my research, this quote stood out to me the most on this topic.
“When someone says they want “designers who can code”, what I hear them saying is that they want a Swiss Army knife. The screwdriver, scissors, knife, toothpick and saw. The problem is that a Swiss Army knife doesn’t do anything particularly well. You aren’t going to see a carpenter driving screws with that little nub of a screwdriver, or a seamstress using those tiny scissors to cut fabric. The Swiss Army knife has tools that work on the most basic level, but they would never be considered replacements for the real thing. Worse still, because it tries to do so much, it’s not even that great at being a knife.” Jesse Weaver
“https://medium.com/re-write/we-dont-need-more-designers-who-can-code-b81483d2a0e6#.12end5m9e"
Along with this thought, there was one more point that stood out to me and one that any UX Designer should follow from student to pro and that point is to focus first on your own UX process. Understanding the steps, study often on new trends of design, follow your process well and with intent, and mostly focus on the user. You are that champion that has the users back don’t forget it. Understanding your role in the whole process will help make you truly see how important you are to the process.
One last quote from my research on this topic:
“I don’t want my designers spending all their time keeping up with the latest cross-browser CSS solutions or learning how to use javascript closures. In the same way that I wouldn’t want our developers spending all their time diving into color theory.
I want my designers staying up on mobile interface standards and the latest usability best practices. I want them studying our users and identifying unmet needs. I want them focused on the work that is going to make our product the best that it can be. And yes, part of that work means learning about code, so they can be effective, empathetic members of the larger product team.”
Jesse Weaver
“https://medium.com/re-write/we-dont-need-more-designers-who-can-code-b81483d2a0e6#.12end5m9e"
After all of this information and research, I then went back to my project at hand. What should I do for my Mini Site with this topic (HTML/CSS) for my class? Well after many thoughts and brainstorming sessions about it, one final point that kept coming up was communication. How could I help aid that communication to help with empathy, to help with understanding, and trust, to help bridge the gap between Designers and Developers? I thought then of one thing, lingo. Vocabulary, that Developers use can sometimes go over Designers heads and block that communication. So from there, I decided I would go with a Developer Glossary for Designers.
Sketching & Wireframing
I started this process like any other, with some sketches.
Then went on to Sketch to do some wireframing.
Final UI
Conclusion
For the conclusion, I have to admit, one-page sites can be tricky and really hard to design for because of the blending of different looks and feels. I definitely need more experience in this area but I think overall I believe I thought of a good UX approach to the problem which was:
Do UX Designers need to code?
Through the research, I learned a lot about this topic and thought then how can we help UX Designers and Developers communicate better to create harmony in the workplace.
Thanks for reading!
