The entire team must work with that common vision so that the whole experience is better than the sum of all parts. Even if you don’t want to become an expert coder, basic HTML and CSS skills are valuable to all UX/UI designers. This basic knowledge helps to establish a “shared understanding” with developers. That is, the designers understand the developer’s perspective, allowing them to collaborate on a deeper level.

Interaction with a product via the user interface is a part of user experience, so UX design as a creative field is broader and includes UI design as its integral part. As a UX designer, you’re expected to only know the surface level code that goes into the UI. You’re not expected to know advanced features that go into different versions of JS. An exceptional depth of knowledge is not what you’re required to have as a UX designer when it comes to frontend languages. There are unlimited ways in which you can combine elements of a design.

Do UX/UI Designers Code? Or Can You Get Away Without It?

Exploring, and garnering an understanding of how UI designs are delivered using various digital technologies, can take designers to the next level and boost their ability to deliver great designs. This saves the team’s time and helps deliver products faster, with fewer iterations. UX designers and coders have different skill sets and are usually hired accordingly. On the other hand, learning to code only makes you a great asset to any multifaceted team, and you can gain experience that may ultimately drive your career growth. There are nontechnical jobs that do not require coding or programming skills.

While it might not be required, the more programming knowledge a UX Designer has, the better they’ll be able to communicate with the rest of the development team. During the prototyping phase, for example, UX Designers work alongside Web Developers, Mobile App Developers, and others to create a model that will embody all the final product’s main ideas. If you’re working as a UX designer for a tech company, you’re going to spend quite a bit of time with frontend developers because they need to build the frontend based on your prototypes. You probably will not write any code, but will need to be able to communicate and understand things such as complications of replicating certain UI components with CSS or JS. It allows you to understand certain technical limitations that you may need to abide by in designing prototypes. One of the challenges for UX designers (and even developers) is that the world of technology continues to evolve, with new languages and frameworks being developed at a fast pace.

How to Advocate and Evangelize User Experience

So, before you write off learning to code, check out the article below. The number one rule of working with developers is to involve them early on at key points throughout the user experience design process. Live interactive prototypes help us experiment and test ideas to get a feel for what the user might experience.

• The letter M in HTML stands for “Markup,” a way to describe the coded structure of page elements which are the building blocks of pages.
• At some point, every designer has pondered this very question.
• Just as with human languages, our ability to read a computer language may be different from our ability to write it.
• This includes animating images, automating functions and enabling interactive components.
• It’s an asset when working with developers as well; it shows you understand what’s possible for them to accomplish and may allow you to take on uncomplicated aspects of coding the project yourself.
• Whatever the reason may be, I think it will still be discussed for a long time, because people have two standpoints regarding the issue, and they both make sense (kind of).

That’s because the final deliverable as a UX designer will always be the prototype which can either be designed through prototyping tools or frontend code. But designers who code, or at least demonstrate deep knowledge of various technologies, will become a great asset to any multidisciplinary team, and it will definitely pay off in the long run. UI designers who have a desire to grow and boost their skillset have a few options at their disposal. They can brush up on a variety of design skills and move into other roles such as visual design, UX, or even UX research. They can also incrementally climb the ladder into more senior, principal, lead, manager, and director-level roles.

It is the age of no-code tools

Regardless of the order of the journey map, the UX designers need to see how their design works when in use. And you can think about it from the developers’ point of view too. I think there is enough reason why a UX designer does not have to know how to code, the first one says it all though.

Knowing the fundamentals of coding helps you design wireframes, prototypes and user interfaces that can actually be built. Then, you can communicate your ideas to a developer in meetings or in a design handoff. It’s important to add that including the fact that you can communicate with developers on your CV or during the UX interview process is a big plus. There’s a massive difference between knowing frontend languages and actually writing code on a regular basis. Developers can end up writing tens of thousands of lines of code over a few months because that’s what they’re paid for.

UX Designers Should Know How to Code, Because…

We may learn a language, only to find out that it has become obsolete within a few months. It is faster and easier for a software developer, who primarily works with code, to adapt and learn course ux ui design about new technologies. The designer can spend her time on design-related activities (understand users and their challenges and identify solutions) and not worry about the newest technology.

Fresh insights from experts, alumni and the wider design community. Learn how to plan, execute, analyse and communicate user research effectively. We offer a wide variety of programs and courses built on adaptive curriculum and led by leading industry experts. It’s also worth noting that, while UX Designers may not be expected to write lines of code, they will be expected to be fully fluent in multiple software platforms.

Many also believe that today, being a multi-skilled designer is a big plus, and that there should be nothing in the way of a designer having another useful skill, such as coding, under their belt. The UI, or the “presentation layer” is a designer’s playground, but focusing on that alone is akin to only considering the facade of a building. Great designers understand that being familiar with the technological underpinnings that deliver their designs not only makes a designer more impressive, it significantly boosts their career prospects.

Having a big picture understanding of the entire process from user personas to coding can help designers articulate and pitch their ideas to a client, too. UX designers can be better partners in the development process by “assisting” with code-related issues. Code isn’t only the designers’ domain of influence, but they can work on items that lead to good code. Lastly, it’s a UX designer’s job to create wireframes and prototypes. To bring a designer’s vision to life and test if it’s feasible, UX designers must be experienced in using various design tools such as Adobe XD.

Therefore, should designers know how to code?

This led to the need for a more holistic approach towards the user’s experience. We, UX Designers, love to ideate and think outside of the box in order to solve the problem at hand. However, many times we focus too much on the innovative idea, and less on the feasibility. More often than not, this is due to our lack of understanding of the time and effort it takes to build out these ideas. However, by understanding basic HTML and CSS it opens up this conversation.