Should designers code… or should developers design?

2 min read Original article ↗

Jessica Lascar

We all know that one of the most discussed topics in the tech community is whether or not designers should code. There are tons of articles out there about the subject, nonetheless I still see new ones popping up every now and then.

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If you just start typing on Google “Should Designers…” guess what it’s the first result to appear?

But tell me now, how many articles have you seen about developers who should design instead? Myself, not even a handful.

It kind of bugs me that while designers are expected to know how to code, nobody really expects developers to have a good understanding of design principles. You might as well have heard some of them easily getting away with the following sentence: “I don’t have a good eye for design and I don’t understand how to make pretty things. I just know how to code”. On the opposite, it comes as a shock when designers admit their lack of coding skills.

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Legend has it, every time a designer says “I can’t code” there is a unicorn somewhere that falls down dead.

My two cents

Ok, I’ll admit it: I can’t code. However, I don’t think I’m less good than the others who can, neither I should feel ashamed because of it.