There are literally dozens and dozens of articles and opinions on this polarizing topic and I’ve tried to absorb the information and points of view from both sides of this issue. Here is how I see it:
The short answer to me is no. A designer should not have to learn how to code. I will admit my point of view comes from some level of bias as I used to be very intimidated by coding, it seemed very mysterious to me. Then I went to school learned some basics and now I know I can learn to really be good at coding if I wanted to take the time and effort to be a great engineer.
It comes down to choosing what I want to learn and excel at. I believe designers should excel at writing, storytelling, understanding how business works, and strategy before excelling at coding. This is not to say that coding is not important, but I would rather work with great engineers who are great at what they do.
So let’s compromise here… I think everyone(designers and non-designers) should learn coding basics, our world is only going to be more reliant on technology and not less, but I believe that only become great at coding if you want to be a great engineer or technologist.
