I've yet to meet a good designer who LIKES to code.
Hello. :)
The “designers should code” bullshit and a not so new idea
91–100 of 104 posts
Re: The “designers should code” bullshit and a not so new idea
#92Look at someone like Garry Tan of Posterous, he can design and code, and for that he is significantly more desirable than a large portion of designers. I would not call it bullshit.
The point is that we should stop to say that designers who can't code aren't valuable.
Of course, and it's exactly the last part of the article, if you can code it's better. ;)
Re: The “designers should code” bullshit and a not so new idea
#93It can be as much bullshit as you would like it to be.
I won't work for a company that makes me write designer's HTML.
I'll do manual labor, I'll take out the trash, I'll do the dishes, I'll help move, I'll clean, I'll do the system administration and I'll even interface with users and play customer support if you want.
I will not write HTML and CSS. If you ask me to do this, I won't work for you. A quick discussion around the office has confirmed that other developers feel similarly to me.
And at the end of the day, you can find hundreds of thousands of great designers who will do this for cheap. You can not do the same for developers.
As well, as a developer who paints at night (artistic background) and writes Erlang & Rails at day - I find the notion of intellectual "division" slightly amiss and I would find it insulting if I was a designer. Its misleading to refer to the 'theory' of multiple intelligences as anything more than a half-cocked ramblings of a drunk on the same intellectual caliber as NLP. Our brain is tremendously complex, although some people exhibit obvious deviant skill distribution, for the most part, we are completely malleable in our capabilities, even well into our adulthood. The article above basically suggests "Designers are so dumb they can't comprehend the tools that they ply their craft with, paint for them!". This simply isn't true.
Re: The “designers should code” bullshit and a not so new idea
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with you, what's next after this? designers that can't use photoshop because it is not part of their intelligence type? HTML/CSS is the designers medium and they have to learn how to use it just as a painter needs to learn how to use paintbrushes or a film director needs to learn how to use a camera.
Don't worry, there's nothing "after this". "Designers should code" exists only in the web design field. It's fair to suggest that "Designers that can code are better", but it's not a must in any way. That's the point. :)
I think its fair to say that if you're a designer and you can't code and your work doesn't look like this http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Rembrandt... , It's likely you're just a untalented designer who also can't code.
Re: The “designers should code” bullshit and a not so new idea
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
If someone has to be forced to learn/use the underlying medium then there's nothing to destroy, they don't have the skillset to to do the job to begin with and they should probably just stick to doing print layout. Having worked with designers ranging in skills from pure photoshop all the way to writes app code in addition to markup, CSS and javascript, in my experience a designer that doesn't have a solid understand…
I worked with lots of excellent designers that aren't able to write a single line of code. And still paired in a good team with a developer, they did marvels. :)
So what you're saying is it's cool for someone to only learn half their job if you've got other warm bodies available to cover for them. Eh.
Taken to an extreme this is similar to you saying I'd make an excellent plumber if I could drive the truck and had a couple of helpers that actually knew how to do plumbing.
You can't tell me with a straight face that a designer that doesn't have a solid grasp of the underlying principles of how front end code works isn't going to (at least occasionally) end up cranking out the worst sort of pie-in-the-sky speculative horseshit that's a rugged nightmare to mimic on the web, and every time they do they end up taking a big ass bite out of the project budget when the rest of the team is scrambling around trying to sort out the cross browser issues with the hot mess of a design comp they've just been handed.
I'll pass, thanks.
Re: The “designers should code” bullshit and a not so new idea
#96I will call your bullshit and raise you a fallacy. ;) But seriously, I think that pigeon-holing yourself into one skill set is the WORST thing you can do. If nothing else, you should at least attempt to learn code so that you might be able to produce reasonable, efficient designs that the coders can easily implement. But it goes much farther than that. Someone (on the internet) once said "programming is the new liter…
Wow, what a way to say I'm not good at either but it doesn't really matter in the end. Really? So you say you're not good at either but having knowledge empowers you? In what way? It gives you the ability to point out people better at those skills than you? I think you should focus on one until you feel you are good at it and then move on to the other. Yes, anyone with an IQ above 70 can learn just about anything. Do…
I only said am not very good at either - but competent enough at both to do them professionally, I think (and I have). Only trying to be humble ;) Anyways - Like the comment below, I don't believe anyone should be "forced" to do something, but at the same time no one should be closed-minded about learning new things.
The one thing I have learned from working in both areas is that in the beginning you improve very rapidly, but at some point only hard work drives you closer to perfection. I would advise anyone with an open mind to at least try learning something they are not good at. Not a requirement by any means, but I do not think anyone would regret trying.
Re: The “designers should code” bullshit and a not so new idea
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't worry, there's nothing "after this". "Designers should code" exists only in the web design field. It's fair to suggest that "Designers that can code are better", but it's not a must in any way. That's the point. :)
I think its fair to say that if you're a designer and you can't code and your work doesn't look like this http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Rembrandt... , It's likely you're just a untalented designer who also can't code.
It's not fair, sorry. ;)
I met plenty of designers that can't code, and they are doing great working in pair with developers. :)
Re: The “designers should code” bullshit and a not so new idea
#98At first i thought the title was referring to backend work, or perhaps just jQuery and i completely agreed-- i wouldn't expect a programmer to be great at design either. But it turns out that this blogger doesn't expect designers to actually make their designs into something tangible. It seems positively ludicrous to me that any designer that is designing for the web would think that not knowing HTML/CSS, and therefo…
People are different. What takes you a month could take years to others. Don't assume that we have equal skills and talent. If you can learn how to write markup in a month... great! Good for you. :)
Other designers, are still doing great, without knowing how to code. ;)
Re: The “designers should code” bullshit and a not so new idea
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except that in most agencies, designers don't code. So they spend 8-10 hours a day doing design. Learning how to code does enhance work but it doesn't mean that you'll necessarily be a better designer than someone who doesn't know how to code but has a pretty firm grasp of what the web can do based on their experience using the medium. I've worked with top tier designers in NYC who have probably never touched a line…
I'm sorry but if a designer spends 8 to 10 hours doing design in an agencie is of no consequence to the point we're discussing. Wether they do or do not code their own designs, is not the point. The point is that they should be able to. I agree that there are designers, and there are designers [insert vocal stress where appropriate], but we're talking specifics (WEB designers) here. They don't need to know how to pro…
Please, try to understand that there are different kinds of people, intelligences, sensibilities and talents, and that what's easy and simple for someone, might be hell for someone else.
Some professionals might do a more than excellent job if they focus and pair with a developer, instead of trying to be something they are not. ;) Some others instead, might become better professionals by learning how to code. Different people, different skills, and they can both work on the web very efficiently in both small and big teams. :)
I love the attitude you express in the third paragraph. We need way more people willing to teach and support others understanding them. :)
Re: The “designers should code” bullshit and a not so new idea
#100This might work for web design. In my experience, it doesn't work well for UI design. The first law of UI design is that you will fuck up most of the time. Most of your ideas are going to be bad bad bad . If you think that every mock comes out of your workstation smelling like roses, then you're either deluding yourself or you're just knocking out something incredibly derivative. To be a good UI designer you have to…
The following quote didn't really fit with my post, but I like it too much not to share it. Take heart! Your limitations are not as strong as might believe. A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analy…
It's a wonderful quote, because it also says that before coding you might want to learn cognitive psychology, social psychology, gestalt theory, marketing, copywriting, information architecture, usability, economy, statistics, science of materials, architecture and so on and on. :)
There's not just "design" and "code" out there, the design field is way more deep than that, so that quote might translate well to a designer that can't code, but studied in depth social psychology, urban architecture and team cooperation techniques. :)