Articles

Learning to code, and how that benefits you as a designer

Jay Hughes

14 Feb 2022 — 1 min read

Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng / Unsplash

Having an understanding of coding principles is going to benefit you as a 'UX thinker'.

I practised as a developer for a few years. My natural yearning to translate my designs to rendered interactive applications was insatiable. That for me was going to save me time and effort. I could validate my assumptions, with data-less working screens.

HTML, CSS and Javascript (The big 3) I think it is fundamental learning for anyone working in a product/tech environment. How much you know, or how deep you wish to dive into the world of coding is relative to your needs.

Why?

The benefits of understanding the client (browser) languages are numerous:

Improved output: from inception, solutions and ideas can be curated and critiqued with a view of the future velocity of your team, and business.
Improve your communication and connection with developers. You'll produce better ideas and solutions if you can challenge limitations and capabilities in software.
Don't be limited by what software can give you for prototyping.
Presenting a browser or mobile-based application to your peers and having them available to test with users, for me, surpasses the limitations you have with relying on software tools.

How?

Take an online course. https://www.udemy.com/course/the-web-developer-bootcamp/ is an excellent introduction to not only client-side but also server-side development and front end practices. Learn with the videos and complete the examples, you'll end up with something you can tweak yourself and use to your advantage in professional environments.
Speak to developers and show them your prototype. It's essential to emphasise you're not impeding or even contributing to production or pipelines. Ask for advice and talk them through what you're studying.
Persistence! Developing or writing code for me never felt a natural process. I found that a simple web page or design app to start and set goals helped.

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