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Modern web designers are like a jack of all trades because they possess lots of soft skills, and know how to design, test, and even sell their designed projects to big companies. When looking at the open vacancies where employers seek web designers, there are now also basic requirements of coding. If you have never even tried to understand the fundamentals of programming, you should start thinking about it now to be competitive in the industry. Let’s take a look at the top 7 reasons why you need to learn to code.
The Art of Coding for Web Designers
In simple terms, coding is computer programming that helps people communicate with computers. You tell what a web page should do, or what one or another call-to-action button should initiate. When it comes to web design, professionals usually stick to the knowledge of the two:
- HTML which stands for Hypertext Markup Language is a code that dictates how to structure web pages and their content. It involves lists of bulleted points, images locations, data tablets, as well as informational paragraphs.
- CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, which, in turn, is a rule-based language defining the styles of web pages. For instance, how the heading of the landing page looks like, what font, or color are there among others.
These are the basics that web designers should be aware of. Luckily for you guys, you do not need to study it all with colleges or universities, but online courses or just educational materials are pretty sufficient. Based on average calculations, a few weeks are enough to master both HTML and CSS. However, you are most likely to crave studying more about coding further on.
Now, let’s proceed to the actual reasons why coding is essential for web designers.
#1 Your Design Won’t Be Spoiled
Web developers mostly focus on designing web pages. They structure the blocks, lists, pictures, and just make one page attractive to users by complying with the UI/UX rules. Those who just transfer their creations to web developers because of a lack of coding skills may see the wrong result. For instance, a web developer may make mistakes with the right colors. As a designer, you know that there are lots of variations of RED colors, while for a programmer it all seems the same. If you alone transfer your design into a Web environment, you get rid of any misunderstandings. Again, it is achieved with the help of CSS, and HTML.
#2 You Become More Creative
You take any project from the two prospects – how it looks to users, and how it can function. Coding also predetermines the testing of your creations. So, you design, then reveal it to the public eye online and check how users find it – convenient or not. As for creativity, you acknowledge the latest trends for coding-designing and can exceed the users’ expectations.
#3 You Are a Perfect Candidate
If you have to compete against a candidate who has both design and web development skills, you are most likely to be declined if you do not know how to code. Employers love cutting the cost on employees, particularly when they can hire a person who can do both, and just boost their salary a bit instead of hiring two different people. It especially concerns web designers who have a basic understanding of front-end development. By the way, there are lots of expectations that one day a web designer with front-end skills will fully replace front-end developers. Think about that.
#4 You Are Aware of Tech Aspects
Either you are a freelance web designer or work for a company, you cannot avoid the meeting gatherings to discuss the progress of the work. By knowing how to code, you have the opportunity to make your amendments or at least understand what web developers are planning to do with your design. Therefore, you won’t come across any surprises after programming specialists deliver your project.
#5 You Can Use Programming Tools
Alongside such tools as Figma or Adobe programs for design and animations, you can use the programming tools where to code. Therefore, if one web developer manages to do a mistake, you can correct it or at least help that person if needed. Yet, on such occasions, you should possess knowledge in one of the programming languages. For instance, Python, Java, or JavaScript depending on the requirements of your employer.
#6 You Can Switch to Coding
If you are no longer interested in designing only or need additional income, you can always switch to taking coding orders. There are many and for any complexity levels. Beyond that, you can just develop a passion for coding, and think of making apps from scratch by implementing design and coding together. Finally, what about having a startup? You alone will know how to hire both programmers and helpers like web designers without any third-party assistance from HR managers.
#7 You Have Smoother Transition to Future
What does it mean? Our future predetermines a lot of innovations, where coding will hardly dictate every solution presented for humans’ use. You will not lag behind the latest innovations and may understand the functionality of many of them. You will have a large pool for consideration on future jobs where web designers with coding skills will be required. Moreover, you may work on creating software and sell it as well. Yet, again, you will need to learn particular programming languages.
In short, web designers with coding skills are those who get higher salaries and are more on-demand in the industry. They can communicate with programmers, and share their own vision on how the code and how their design should look like. If you only start learning to code, you might come across some hurdles with the “my STEM assignment or homework”. Yet, no need to write it off as lost, because you can always turn to a service of coding assignment help where experts will help you deal with all programming projects complexities on time and affordably.
