Martin Ringlein of n’clud recently wrote a post called
“Should Web Designers Know How to Code?”:

All designers must know the medium and canvas in which they design for. How can a sculptor sculpt without knowing the difference in stones? How can a painter paint without knowing the difference in brushes, paint or canvas? How can a print designer create without knowing about the printing process, types of paper stock or difference between CMYK and RGB? And how can a web designer design without knowing how to code, or at least how the code works? The important aspect to mention is that a web designer must know how to code, but doesn’t need to or have to actually code.

I started to write a comment and realized I really had a blog post…

I find myself smack in the middle of this debate all too often and I can’t agree with Martin more. I especially disagree with the argument “that designers who code will let that knowledge limit their design “. Thats a load of crap and a poor excuse. Since I have learned CSS and HTML it has allowed me to see the big picture, understanding the limitations puts me in the position to think of new ways to push the boundaries. Some important advantages of knowing HTMLand CSS as a designer (in addition to the ones that Martin has listed) are:

Being able to estimate budgets and timelines more effectively. A designer who understands how much work it will take a developer to execute their design can more effectively design within budget constraints.

Cutting corners on load time. The first time I shaved several seconds off of a site for replacing image based navigation with one that utilized system fonts felt great. The satisfaction of knowing the user was not going to have to wait a few seconds longer was a release on that anal retentive print mentality that it had to be that very specific font.

Appreciation for Bad Asses. Its one thing to be a killer designer but its another to be a bad ass. My biggest “AHA! moment” came when I experienced the site of a developer who was just as innovative in his use of javascript as he was in his use of beautiful swiss typography. There is a creativity in development that you can not understand until you learn it and it will change the way you look at the web. Don’t miss out.

Remember designers; a Photoshop document is not your canvas. A PSD file will do nothing on the internet but take a really long time to download.

Disagree? I would love to hear opposing opinions… I know they are out there.

If you subscribed to my feed before Monday August 6, 2007 it would be super awesome of you to please update your feed. You see, I am just now getting around to the vast wonderment of feedburner.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/BadAssIdeas

Reworking a website is never my favorite task. Its always more fun to start a site from scratch writing the HTML super clean. A few times I have been given the task to rework other’s sites. If you write any HTML you will know that everyone has their own style. This usually causes me to curse out-loud and blame ridiculous habits on those who are no longer working at the company. I am one of those coders who talks out her code verbally asking aloud “why are you not floating left… float LEFT!”. When it is someone else’s code I usually say something along the lines of” what the hell was #&!@ thinking when he wrote all of this inline CSS?

Today I am reworking one of my sites that is about 2 years old. It is one of the first sites I ever coded quasi-on-my-own. After a bit of procrastination and fear of what may lie beneath, I peaked under the hood to find mountains of
tags. Gasping in horror… “how could i have written this?!”. Looking away in denial I thought to myself “maybe i can just not touch it, no one would notice”. While wrestling with these disturbing feelings the truth percolated through my conscience. It was too late,the image of excessive tags had been burnt into my brain. The embarrassment of ill kept code began to eat me up. Something must be done.

While I don’t mind the revisions, it is the embarrassment of having written it in the first place that hits me hardest. After beginning the process of rebuilding, I started to think about it. It could be worse. These could be tables or non breaking spaces. This code that I am wading through could be horrible given the circumstances. I was designing exclusively for print only a few months prior.

There is a more hideous scenario: Two years after writing the erroneous code I could see nothing wrong with it, making no progress at all. Back then my attitude was like “sweet i know CSS, I can make a website”. Now that attitude is ridiculous and I have learned to stay mindful of what I don’t know. This goes along with a theory I have had for some time. If a potential employer asks you to rate your Photoshop knowledge on a scale of 1-10, and you say 10… he/she will know you are full of yourself. Not even the most badass designers will admit to saying they are Grand Masters of Photoshop. If you do say 10 and the employer is ok with it, then it is someone you don’t want to work for because they have no understanding of the industry.

Whether it be Photoshop, web development, businesses, or design if you think you know it all you are selling yourself short. I hope to continue to be desperate and hungry for web knowledge. The threat of falling behind is looming over us all. In an industry that moves so fast it is often discouraging to keep up. A run on the treadmill may knock the wind out of me but I hope a little bit of HTML never does.

[techtags: HTML, CSS, BY, Web Development, Code Habits]