Do designer need to learn coding or vice versa?

I was so lost back then. I have to pay the bill. So I dropped out from the post production of movie course and joined the job I got at that time. I don't have any idea how to go ahead with my career at that time. I was stuck with taking photograph of gems stones and editing images and doing graphic for marketing for a very small office. Then I got a better job in a big online e-commerce company but still a graphic design. Then I was exposed to other designs slowly like designing a campaign landing pages, designing newsletters and other small designs which is not particularly focused on graphic design only but on others as well like layout design on page levels. It was during this period I got interested in coding. 

Once the guy who do coding for the newsletters  was on leave, and I was asked if I could do it. I was scared to try but also couldn't help myself to try. I asked them if they could give me a day or two and they said okay. I started learning the abc of coding from the youtube and got some help from other colleagues and also my sister who works in different company. Ah...it was scary and finally I tried it out successfully. I was happy. So that's the starting point of my thoughts on should I go in coding direction or in design direction. I heard of UX design at that time but many people were saying... it's difficult to get into UX field if you don't have a design certificate. 

So instead of exploring UX or UI design, I started exploring HTML, then CSS. I joined a short term course on HTML and CSS. I have a basic knowledge like how things work in coding and also, I realised coding is not my cup of tea....haha. Though having the basic knowledge certainly helps you in designing.

Fast forward, I am now a UX/UI designer.

Now back to the topic...

Do you as a designer need to learn coding? 

Nope. But knowing coding helps you in designing. That I'm for sure.

How does it help?

From my personal experience, I would like to share few points here:

• Helps you in collaborating with developers more efficiently
• Helps you in understanding technical limitations or possibilities
• Helps you understand how responsive design works more clearly 

Yes, I can see the advantages of knowing how coding works as a designer. But how about the coders? I mean don't they need to know how UX or UI works.

So now comes up the another question...how about...umm

Do coder need to know how design works?

Nope here as well. But will definitely help if the coder understand how design works though.

Remember Steve Jobs mentioned 'Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works'.

How does it help?

After doing some research on it, I would like to share few points here:

• Helps you in collaborating with designers more efficiently
• Helps in understanding that final output to be not only functional but also enjoyable and easy to use
• Helps focus on user needs

Thank you for stopping by. :)