Code or not to code? Asks a designer

No, this is not going to be another  "should designers code" kind of post. I think everyone should be an expert in their own field, and it is impossible to cover every topic and every detail in a rapid-changing IT world. I also not consider myself s very good software engineer or similar expert. Instead, wanted to share how the knowledge of coding empowered me as a designer and gave me new tools to develop my ideas and to enrich my design.

I learned to code during the course "Coding for the Arts" at the Zurich University of the Arts. Here you can visit the projects I accomplished during the studies. Although the program aimed to use code for the purposes of digital art, I think it helped me and empowered me as a designer a lot. Looking back, I can say that it is rewarding and very empowering skill for designers.

I think that it is easier to start understanding code already during your design in Figma. Figmas new autolayout options are a great tool to understand responsiveness and use its principles already during design stage. Also, the knowledge of the concepts of CSS and HTML make the communication with the design team much easier.

Of course, no-code tools make it a lot easier to start developing your ideas. But I think making first sites from scratch and coding yourself makes learning much faster and the level of mastery of some details is much higher.

You even don't need expensive courses or programs for this, as there are many free resources for frontend development for the start. And webflow has great free university to quickly start creating your products. So, it has never been as accessible as now.