Why UX Designers Should Learn to Code

Posted on 25 May, 2022 by Micheal Alexander

In today’s customer-centric age, great user experience (UX) is a non-negotiable that most companies are prioritising. After all, recent UX statistics reveal that better design can improve conversation rates by up to 400%. In line with this, UX designers are finding themselves in huge demand, with 87% of hiring managers prioritising the onboarding of these professionals. UX Design Tools for Beginners

That said, UX designers may still find themselves facing many challenges at work. With company and consumer needs ever-evolving, UX designers must arm themselves with extra skills that can keep them proactive, agile, and reliable. One of the most relevant and rewarding ways that a UX designer can do this is by learning to code. Here’s why:

Team communications are enhanced

UX designers and programme developers often don’t speak the same language. Though everyone is talking about the same project, it’s normal for each team of specialists to have their own unique jargon. While relatively normal, this difference can cause significant miscommunications. Instead of having meaningful exchanges, UX designers and developers may just waste precious time trying to decipher what the other means. Alternatively, when a designer knows about code, everyone is able to understand the general circumstances and provide valuable opinions without getting diluted by rough translations. With such improved communications within the staff, you can encourage better cooperation and efficiency. Ultimately, effective communications can even boost an organization’s productivity by up to 25%

Basic tasks can be streamlined

Designing a product or service fit for excellent consumer use can be tedious and costly. As such, it’s important to keep operations as streamlined and focused as possible. Unfortunately, even experienced UX designers can stumble here because they need to rely on sub-par tools or the help of equally busy developers. This can often cause longer production times which can be expensive. Conversely, designers who can code are able to reduce this chokepoint. Specifically, they can fulfil basic coding tasks like creating functional prototypes and debugging minor HTML or CSS issues. This makes the entire process much easier for designers and other team members since everyone can focus on much larger and more pressing jobs.

Designers can enjoy employment flexibility

Even if being a designer is your primary focus, being able to fulfill—or at the very least understand—the needs of other in-demand computer science careers, like computer scientists and software developers, can set you up for greater roles within a company. Keep in mind, that both of these jobs are some of the most popular with growth rates of up to 21%. Includes. Plus, since these jobs also include analysing user behaviour, running tests, and building models, a UX background also provides a strong foundation that can be enhanced with coding. Since many tech start-ups also have a leaner staff, the more multi-faceted you are, the more you’re likely to be chosen for bigger projects. Down the line, this can make you a veritable candidate for leadership too since your wide breadth of knowledge can cover multiple fortes. Prototyping tools

Complements customer experience design planning

As consumers become more discerning, company growth is becoming increasingly reliant on customer experience (CX) design. While customer experience designers lead these projects, a UX designer is essential to creating a well-rounded CX design. Since understanding user expectations are critical for CX, a UX designer who can code are able to pursue more creative solutions. Because coding is actually a great creative exercise, designers who learn it are able to flex their mental agility and imagination. As an added bonus, when you’re able to code, you can propose more targeted approaches that are preferred by your target audience. By the end of the process, this will result in a customer experience design that understands and satisfies user expectations.