In case you didn't know a UX and a UI designer deals with everything design, from a mobile app all the way to a car dashboard. Anything that has an interface basically.
When you design you need to understand the end-user and that will guide most of the functionality and aspect of the digital product you will be designing. Once the design is signed off the front end developer takes over and transforms those designs, the static images, the prototype into a functional product. Yes, designers still need to be familiar with what the developer is doing because they collaborate and need to know how to make each others work easier, but the designer doesn't necessarily need to code in this situation.
However this is not always the case. Nowadays people want things faster and cheaper. Paying a UX designer, a UI designer and a few developers for a bespoke product is not the best option anymore, especially for startups or smaller companies. Thus most of the times companies want a person who knows UX and UI but also a bit of coding.
Well because we have new tools out there that help these companies to create faster and cheaper products, such as website builders like Wix, Webflow, Wordpress and so on. Here the designer and especially a freelance designer might need to learn how to implement those designs on the platform. It's not always as simple as drag and drop. There are times when you need to tweak a few things in the code in order to have a good looking product, and not something that feels all over the place and confuses the user.
Also the need for more digital products outside the digital industry has pushed designers to know a bit more about coding and a bit more about the tools out there that can help bring their designs to life. For example, I had multiple clients from industries like construction and real estate, that were expecting a clean functional product once the design was signed off. Few people understood that this was not a designer's job. I even got things like: " Aren't you the IT guy?". So because of these frustrations and misunderstandings, a lot of freelance designers decided it's time to become independent from front end developers and simply learn some new tools and a bit of coding. It's cheaper and faster, and sometimes easier because you already know what you designed and how you want it to look and function, whereas a developer might come back all the time with questions about the look and feel and the functionality.
Yes people! Get out there and learn! This industry is like medicine, you never stop learning. There are a lot of companies that come up with the latest programmes and platforms that make the product development process more efficient, and if you are passionate about your job you already know this and do this regularly. You need to stay on top of the latest trends and learn as much as possible.
I will try to post more and more videos about this merge between design and coding and show you how easy it is. So stay tuned! Let me know how helpful this video was down in the comments below, terrorise that like button and smash the subscribe button and I will see you in the next one! Take care!
