Are designers who can code "more valuable"? ↦
That depends — in particular, on what type of designer you’re talking about.
I’m glad to see Benek re-broach this topic, because a fresh perspective on the subject can remind designers to consider rounding out their tangential skills. Especially skills that could extend their current primary skillset. The dividends, can, quite literally pay for themselves.
The value in being a modern designer who knows code isn’t that you can replace the job of a front-end dev…but that you know the ins and outs of it. It’s about understanding what developers are talking about so you can participate in discussions that cross between design and front-end.
If you’re a designer “hired to do an array of jobs on a project” then you can expect a bump in the value you present individually to the business/team you serve.
Discussion
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Adam Stacoviak
Austin, TX
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Changelog
2018-10-30T18:25:05Z ago
To bring it home a little for me, I started as a designer, then quickly realized that I liked to do UX and CSS work, which lead to learning more and more about the HTML spec. Over time, I was building full sites and learning JavaScript (jQuery at the time). I got into podcasting and audio, and eventually I leveled up to a Product Manager position and was able to lead a development team…then I quit all that and went full-time here on Changelog.com.
All the skills I’ve ever learned in life are used on the daily here at Changelog. If I just stopped at design, I wouldn’t have been able to play a key role in all the work we do here day to day.