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We Don’t Need More Designers Who Can Code(medium.com)

over 8 years ago from Saneef Ansari, Consultant Designer & Developer

  • barry saundersbarry saunders, over 8 years ago

    If nothing else, expecting designers to spend their spare time learning to code means they spend less time learning more directly useful design skills, such as UX, design research and user testing. Designers should learn about constraints, but better to focus on usability and experience constraints, not only implementable solutions.

    Engineering is the profession that's focused on whether something can be built. Design should be more focused on whether something should be built.

    3 points
    • Kyle ConradKyle Conrad, over 8 years ago

      I still don't understand why there's this argument out there that doing one must come at the detriment to the other, especially in terms of learning. One can learn to code AND read articles to learn about best mobile UI practices, it's not like one prevents the other.

      2 points
      • barry saundersbarry saunders, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

        There's a bit more to UX than reading best practice guidelines! That's entry level for being a designer. Understanding UX is about understanding people and their behaviours.

        Ultimately it's about how much time and focus you have. For most people, maintaining one set of skills at a high level is hard enough. Two sets is the max for most people. And given the number of pretty, well coded software products that are utterly useless, I'd argue we'd do better focusing on creating more designers who can find out what to build rather than how to build it.

        Path is a great example. Very pretty, classic startup, lots of unicorn designers, building a product that fundamentally misunderstands how people communicate and maintain friendships. A bit more focus on the human part of design would have really helped.

        2 points
        • Samantha S, over 8 years ago

          I agree that we should focus on designing what to build, I struggle with this question everyday working in a corporate setting. At the end of the day, it's all about revenue and that dictates what is to be built and when to pivot. Designers can create a pain-free, intuitive experience for users but when you have product management defining requirements and use cases, your hands are tied in respect to "what to build". That simply isn't seen as our job unless it's your company or you are a UX researcher tasked with uncovering unmet market opportunities through user (segment) research.

          1 point
          • barry saundersbarry saunders, over 8 years ago

            Yeah, I understand that it's hard in certain workplaces - but we should resist allowing product managers to degrade the practice of design to just following their dictates!

            0 points