“Should designers code?”

I started my design journey during the era of Photoshop and I used it mainly to customize Windows, make avatars and signatures for forums, and design flyers for parties. But I quickly realized it was not enough for me only to draw static things. One of the tools I was amazed by at that time was Flash, and I used it to make my first websites in it. But then my friend introduced me to HTML and CSS, which completely changed things. I started learning it immediately by making a few client websites (for free, of course :), and as soon as I got more confident with it, I started creating them for money. Initially only with HTML/CSS, and later expanding to WordPress. I wasn’t earning a lot, but it was enough. My main goal at that point was to learn and build my portfolio.

One year later, I landed my first full-time gig as a web designer, where I was designing and coding at the same time. And after I left that job, I continued in the same manner while freelancing, because I loved both things equally. But at some point, I realized that I needed to focus on one thing at a time so that I could get better at it faster. I concentrated just on UI/UX design. I coded for myself from time to time, or for someone I know, but those were the rare moments. For work, I was only designing.

Several years later, when I was working for a small startup, the CEO and I were unhappy with how some external team coded my design, so I proposed to him to assign that task to me. I couldn’t stand that someone was butchering my design and that things were not pixel-perfect. Since the code was also bad, I started from scratch and coded everything, page by page. It felt amazing!

At that moment, I remembered how much I love coding and how good it feels to have a nice balance between making and coding design. From that point on, I decided that if there were no coding jobs, I’d make my own. And even today, I try to come up with side projects, or even with a personal site redesign, to escape from the everyday routine of drawing rectangles on screen.

Like in any other area, it’s boring to do the same things repeatedly. Switching from design to code and back is kind of a nice refresher for me. I love coding my own designs because it brings them to life, so as long as I continue designing, I don’t plan to stop coding.