Bridging the gap between design and development is key for successful teams building websites or products. “Should designers learn to code?” has been asked many times over the years, but “Should developers learn design?” seems to be much less asked.
You don’t need to become an award-winning designer but if you’re a developer who builds for things that need a UI, learning design fundamentals can help you outside of just being able to make your projects look better.
With design fundamentals you can…
Build your collaboration and communication skills with designers on your team to better understand their process and thinking so you can provide more feedback early in the project. More feedback early on = less back and forth in the development stage if a design isn’t feasible or the code needed to implement a design is going to negatively affect the user experience of a project.
Understand how to improve the user experience of a product with a user-centric approach and identify points where designs may not translate well with code. Communication is key. If you can understand why your designers made certain decisions, you can help to brainstorm other ideas if the design isn’t going to be easy to build.
Stand out in the job market with a diverse skill set. Being able to act as a liaison between design and development teams can help move you into more senior roles as you think about the whole product and not just the development side of things. You don’t have to be an amazing designer, but understanding the “why” behind decisions makes you a stronger candidate to be in a lead role.
Understanding design fundamentals and user experience basics will help you build products that look better but can contribute to the growth of your career in other ways.
If you’re interested in advancing your design skills and learning the basics of visual design and user experience, the book Design for Developers teaches those basics.
Level up today and stay tuned for more tips on how visual design and user experience basics can help advance your skillset and career!
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