7 Reasons Why Coders Should Learn Design

Xccelerate
6 min readNov 9, 2021

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Even some of the most experienced and talented coders can lack a fundamental understanding of basic design principles. Coders are like the architects of a project. They lay down the groundwork of a website and create a functional frame for designers to humanize and make it comfortable for users.

Here’s why every coder should get to grips with design.

Coders are responsible for the crucial yet unseen elements of developing a website’s infrastructure. Whereas designers and front-end developers get tasked with fleshing it out and considering how users will engage with it. In today’s world, the rapidly growing number of both coders and designers is pushing these two roles forward into new territories. In these new territories, both parties must share a mutual understanding of one another’s work. Despite the different roles that coders and designers both play in developing incredible technology, it has never been more important for collaboration and empathic teamwork to take place. For the sake of both individual career expansion and more streamlined project communication, here are seven reasons why coders can benefit from learning design in 2021.

Gain A Deeper Understanding Of UX

By pushing themselves into new design territories, coders can develop a much sharper sense of what UX really is and how they can allow it to influence their work. UX (User Experience) Design is the method of approaching website development from the perspective of a relevant user. It entails applying data-driven information about how users tend to behave to create more functional and intuitive designs.

Coders who learn design will gain a much deeper understanding of how UX works. Plus, they’ll better understand how to apply its principles to back-end code development.

People often think of coding and UX design to be two very different skills — and they are. But through learning how each end works, coders can learn how to write stronger and more user-friendly code.

Become A Better Collaborator

As with all professional teams, communication issues tend to arise between those on different ends of the project spectrum. Coders and designers are often lacking in the communication department. This can lead to frustration and badly executed plans.

Collaboration forms a huge part of any efficient worker in their field, coders included. By cultivating a stronger understanding of design, coders can become much better collaborators within a team. That means improved workflow, better time management, and more impactful work output. It’s time to let go of the stereotype that coders are reclusive and difficult to work with. With a little bit of design learning, coders can become more streamlined communicators within the workplace. This will alter the way their profession is perceived by team members.

Find New Perspectives On Coding

There’s nothing like a holiday to make you truly appreciate the allure of your own bed. Taking a user interface design learning course can help coders to facilitate a renewed perspective on their profession, and rekindle the passion they have for their occupation.

Learning design can give coders a necessary break from their structural mindset. Additionally, it will encourage new thoughts and ideas that they can take back into coding for refinement. Sometimes, the brain needs to experience something completely different before returning to what it knows with more strength.

Reduce Time Wastage

A lot of time and energy gets wasted on a project through miscommunication, lack of experience, and poor understanding. By learning some foundational design principles, coders can reduce the amount of time wasted on failed collaboration efforts that jeopardize project success.

Many website development projects are already pressed for time. The technology industry is booming and waits for no one. In a team of developers, nobody has time to spare. But that could change with a bit of design learning. In this industry, deadlines are often non-negotiable. Coders can get ahead by cultivating knowledge about design, utilizing easy-to-use design tools, and preventing avoidable mistakes.

Expand Your Resume

In such a competitive field, coders need to place importance on their resumes. They need to highlight how they display innovation and initiative. In 2021, coding is one of the most in-demand jobs in the world, meaning that workers need to find ways to stand out amongst the crowd.

By undergoing a basic design course, coders can level up their work experience. This shows future employers just how broad their understanding of development really is.

Coding may be an in-demand occupation right now. But a coder and designer will have their choice of employment for decades to come. There’s never any harm done in expanding your resume and making yourself more hireable for future endeavors.

Tackle Solo Projects

Perhaps the strongest argument for coders’ learning design is that it enables them to tackle projects independently. This increases their ability to earn an income and gives them total creative freedom over all aspects of development. From the groundwork to the final touches, coders with a fundamental comprehension of design can work on solo projects that do not require any input from UX or designers.

The authority that comes with running a development project independently can give coders the opportunity to really experiment and play with both code and design in ways that are not traditionally feasible. This level of control is only possible with knowledge in both areas.

Embrace Your Creative Side

Across the world, coders have attracted an inaccurate stereotype of being entirely left-brained and analytical. While it is certainly true that coding does require a certain strategic mind, this does not mean that coders are unable to be creative. Taking a course in design can give coders a necessary boost of confidence in their creative capacity and allow them to take it back with them into the world of code. Sometimes it’s hard to believe you are capable of something until you try, but learning something new is a great way to become re-inspired by your craft and discover fresh, creative ways of thinking.

Coding and Design: the Power of Two

All in all, learning both coding and design will give you a career advantage. You’ll have a better grasp of UX and how to incorporate it, and it will provide you with the information necessary for engaging with your ultimate target market: users. The more aspects of website development you understand, the better, and with such an extensive variety of online design course options available, there’s really no excuse. If you can master using tools like Figma and other favorites, you can create websites that combine the skills of a designer and a developer, resulting in the best possible UX. If you want to further your relationship with coding and create more intuitive strategies, learning design is one way to get you there.

Xccelerate offers various design courses from part-time user-interface design, part-time UX design, to full-time full-stack UX design.

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Xccelerate

Advancing technology by bridging the talent gap. Based in Hong Kong.