How to become a “Designer Who Codes”

The stages I went through on my path to learning front-end development

Meagan Fisher
Design Systems

Quick note: “coding” in this article is my shorthand phrase for “learning enough HTML and CSS to be able to create the basic front-end for the websites you design.” Many developers will probably see this as dipping the smallest of pinky toes into “coding,” and that’s fine with me. 💁‍♀️

Being a Designer Who Codes™ is a pretty awesome superpower. Not only can you design pictures of gorgeous websites, but you can make them exist on the real internet! (Because as much as I love them, Dribbble shots are not the real internet). It’s a bit like being a mad scientist; you can bring dead mockups to life through your own determination and genius. 👩‍🔬

Me every time I build a website

If it’s not your thing, that’s fine too! I’m not really trying to convince you to do it, because honestly the fact that many designers still don’t know how to code gives me a big competitive advantage (just as other designers have strengths I don’t, which gives them advantages. There’s room for everyone! ❤️)

I will tell you why and how I’ve learned to build websites, if you’re interested.

I code because I love it, not just because it makes me a better designer

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Responses (16)

What are your thoughts?

Hot tip: Googling about things that aren’t working and finding the answer on Stack Overflow is a big part of what front-end development is.

*all* development

Thanks for this article Meagan. I’ve always felt that designers who can code are more valuable, but any time that opinion is raised it always gets strong pushback from stubborn minority of designers who want to believe it’s not true. Part of the…...

Thank you Meagan! I know HTML/CSS and recently decided to transition into UX Design. I’m definitely going to work on creating my prototypes in code to foster that skillset even more.