It seems like everybody wants to learn how to code nowadays and for many people, coding seems to be an almost essential skill. President Obama recently pushed to have computer science taught in every public school in the country and Mayor Bloomberg stated that coding would be an essential skill for the workforce of tomorrow.
But there’s one group that stands to benefit from learning code more than others, and that is designers. Web designers have to deal with code every day, but it is still baffling to see how many web designers today are completely code-illiterate. In this article, we’re going to explore some of the main benefits for designers of learning how to code.
Improve your Digital Literacy
The first advantage of learning code for designers is improving your knowledge and understanding of code in the first place. Web designers have to deal with code on a daily basis, and if you don’t know how to code, you’ll always have to refer to a third party to sort out programming bugs and issues.
This literally puts you at the mercy of coders who can charge you unnecessary hours to do something that you could easily do on your own in a few minutes. Knowing how to code as a designer is an essential skill that will allow you to be more autonomous. It will also improve your chances for employment and make you a much more valuable asset to your team.
Improve Significantly the Quality of your Sites
Almost everyone can build a website with almost no knowledge of code. However, while building a basic site can be done by everyone, adding advanced interactive elements with jQuery or adding PHP commands takes a little more expertise. Knowing how to program using a variety of languages will allow you to integrate images, videos and interactive elements into your website, and do more with them.
Knowing Code can Make You More Productive
The benefits of knowing code go well beyond site building. Once you know how computers and various programs work on a more profound level, you can make modifications that will allow you to automate a variety of tasks.
For instance, you could create simple programs that will allow you to track down inefficiencies in your system. You could use your coding abilities modify text and email applications to facilitate workflow. Knowing how to code will not only make you a better designer, but will allow you to understand the inner workings of any program, and make changes accordingly.
If you already have a position and are serious about coding, you could even consider enrolling for an online masters computer science degree from a university such as the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
An online masters in computer science course will help set you apart from the competition. More importantly, it will allow you to build more impressive websites and help you make changes on the fly without having to deal with a third party.