Some of the best designers I've had the pleasure of working with didn't know how to write HTML or CSS. The did, however, deeply understand the constraints of web design. Knowing HTML and CSS gives you a de facto understanding of the constraints, but you don't actually have to write it in order to become a competent web designer.
I also think most people are thinking from the perspective of the scrappy start-up, where you must be multi-talented in order to cover various roles. In large organizations there's designers that only produce wireframes, then another designer comes along and produces the final visual output, and finally another guy comes and codes it. Not that it's the right way to do it, it's just that the expectations are being set too high.
Instead of putting down web designers who can't code, appreciate web designers who do it. This comes from a web designer who can code.
I think this post is at least partially misunderstanding the assertion that designers should be able to code. The point is not that they should be a coder, just that they should, like you said, "deeply understand the constraints of [their field]."
Someone who comes up with a good design that can't or won't be implemented may as well have not designed it in the first place- but if they understand the constraints on their design they can come up with something optimal that can actually exist.
Comments
Some of the best designers I've had the pleasure of working with didn't know how to write HTML or CSS. The did, however, deeply understand the constraints of web design. Knowing HTML and CSS gives you a de facto understanding of the constraints, but you don't actually have to write it in order to become a competent web designer.
I also think most people are thinking from the perspective of the scrappy start-up, where you must be multi-talented in order to cover various roles. In large organizations there's designers that only produce wireframes, then another designer comes along and produces the final visual output, and finally another guy comes and codes it. Not that it's the right way to do it, it's just that the expectations are being set too high.
Instead of putting down web designers who can't code, appreciate web designers who do it. This comes from a web designer who can code.
I think this post is at least partially misunderstanding the assertion that designers should be able to code. The point is not that they should be a coder, just that they should, like you said, "deeply understand the constraints of [their field]."
Someone who comes up with a good design that can't or won't be implemented may as well have not designed it in the first place- but if they understand the constraints on their design they can come up with something optimal that can actually exist.