Should Web Designers Know How to Code?

Building websites with at least some knowledge of HTML, is far more productive than simply drawing them with Photoshop.

While web designers who know how to code still often end up sending their PSDs to web developers, the truth is that most award-winning websites are designed by code-savvy web designers. You wonder why? It’s because both HTML and CSS are very visual languages in themselves.

Also, websites become increasingly interactive. User interactions though are very difficult to foresee using only Photoshop. Whereas, having code in mind always helps creating designs that have interactions in mind.

Let alone cash. If you are a freelance web designer, knowing how to code will definitely broaden your range of customers, as you will become a one-stop-shop.

And if you are a corporate web designer, knowing at least the basics of coding will help you deliver designs that are both interaction-oriented and easier to work with, as they subconsciously take developers into account. Simply speaking, you earn karma points that often translate into a better pay.

Is learning to code difficult?

Contrary to the popular belief, learning how to code is very easy at the beginning, even to an extent where it becomes addictive.

However, if you’re not getting addicted at the beginning or if you don’t like self-learning, most possibly programming isn’t something you should pursue. Nevertheless, if you’re already into web design, odds are that programming is for you.

Should you pick a programming language?

At first, you should decide what you want to do. If you are into web solutions, HTML5 and PHP are the most popular languages in this area.

However, it becomes increasingly popular to hire developers regardless of the programming languages they are good at. Great developers always play with new technologies once they come out. Most importantly, if someone’s good at one language, they can learn new ones very fast. So you shouldn’t stick to a particular language, yet play with ones that are related to web technologies.

Also, odds are that there are plenty of web developers working around web designers.

Where should you start?

There are plenty of useful online resources that teach the basics of web development. Here are a couple of helpful websites in your pursuit of becoming familiar with coding.

• Dash

  Dash teaches HTML, CSS and JavaScript through fun projects you can do in your browser. The good thing about Dash, is that is teaches the basics through real-life scenarios. The code is written in the browser and the lessons are leved-based. It’s a fun way to learn the basics for a web designer, unfortunately, only four projects (lessons) are available.

• Codecademy

  Codecademy is also great when it comes to the basics of web design. It also offers interactive lessons and it has more programming languages on the table than Dash. Codecademy starts with HTML and CSS lessons (they call them Fundamentals), which is truly the right selection for the beginners. After the Fundamentals are completed, you can choose to learn jQuery, JavaScript, PHP, Python or Ruby.

• W3Schools

  This set of tutorials is a very popular one. W3Schools features both tutorials and references – the latter are often being explored even by experienced web developers. The website features lessons for popular languages and technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, PHP and jQuery. It also teaches servers, databases and other vital stuff, it has more than a thousand of code examples. It’s free. While Dash is somewhat better for newbies, W3S is very handy even for the professionals.

• Learn JavaScript

  While JavaScript is somewhat advanced and is not recommended as the first technology to learn, it is very good to learn if you want to work on making web plugins or mobile apps. This is very much in demand right now, so it’s a handy programming language to know. Learn JavaScript is your first port of call, should you decide to go JavaScript. It features an interactive board that allows to try the code you just wrote. The lessons are both basic and advanced.

SOURCE: Web Design Ledger