Heath Waller is a guest writer and new to SpicyWebDesigners.com. She is a web designer from Calgary, Alberta in Canada and currently runs a portfolio and her new blog called “Code Alchemy“. I hope that you enjoy her article about her experience coming from a visual art and design background and taking the leap to learn coding.
A confession: Starting out as a web designer, I was just about as resistant to learning code as humanly possible. I honestly believed my right-braineded-ness rendered me incapable of understanding such abstruse concepts as Javascript and PHP. Code felt to me like the worst possible combination of indecipherable characters and random hieroglyphs – my worst high school calculus nightmares revisited. And, given the multitude of WYSIWYG solutions available, why commit the effort required to learn code?
I was privy to articles by designers discussing how understanding the framework provided by code helped them in conceptualizing their finished designs. While this made sense to me – I comforted myself with the biased notion that most developers were men, who were naturally more adept at abstract thinking. My hours were spent instead figuring out tricks that would allow me to get around the obvious gaps in my knowledge.
So, what was the turning point that got me to actually start dedicating myself to learning code? While I wish I could say it was due to some grand enlightenment – my conversion ended up coming somewhat more cynically. I was in need of work and was offered work by a design company who was looking for a coder and it was a done deal!
Let’s face it, learning a new language at a mature age can pose a challenge for the best of us and I was no exception. After all, that is essentially what web code is: a selection of proprietary languages that make stuff behave in certain ways. Fortunately, I was surprised to discover many of the computer languages are composed mainly of regular English. So when I was starting out with XHTML and CSS allowed for some small sense of comfort in familiarity and kicking and screaming as I was, small consolations mattered.
I took out about a dozen books on XHTML and CSS and with copious mugs of tea at the ready, shut myself in for a week of dedicated cramming. Without the alternative of failure as an option I dove in head-first. I made all kinds of mistakes in the process which in and of itself was an essential learning tool. Taking the theory that I’d been reading about in these books and putting it into practice makes everything much more relevant and present to me.
I now possess many of the skills that can transform a designer’s vision into a functional reality. New situations crop up all the time that force me to learn new techniques and new code languages in order to accommodate the designers’ needs. Because of this, I feel confident in having tackled learning one type of code in the past, that I’ll be able to tackle other ones in the future.
I am also happy to report the benefits of learning code extend to my own designing. Instead of performing an essential “translation” between Photoshop and the browser, I welcome the interplay between the visual plan and dynamism code introduces. There is a push and pull between the design and the code that allows for happy accidents. To put it in painting terms, I now feel like I do the under painting in Photoshop, and add the nuances and glazing in the browser. The design process feels more organic. In understanding the limitations and capacities that current codes present to a design, I ultimately feel more creative in my designing abilities.
When I was learning oil painting I first had to learn my materials. The greater understanding I achieved with my stretchers, canvases, paints and mediums, the freer I felt in my ability to focus on my expression. These days I use Firebug to inspect the element of anything and everything that makes me go “how’d they do that”?! It makes browsing the web feel more like a trip through an art gallery. To get up close and personal with the works or recognized masters of web design and to take note of the “brushstrokes” that help them achieve their mastery.
I still have much to learn, and given my recent experience, I can only imagine that the more I learn, the better my designs will become. Learning to code is still one of the most painful challenges I’ve faced in my work; however in retrospect, I feel rather foolish to have done without it for so long. The time and patience required to learn it is far outweighed by the benefits I receive as professional designer.
I now consider myself both a code geek and a vocal advocate for designers understanding the full range of tools at their disposal; and code is just as essential to my work as my graphic tools.
Heath Waller
Heath Waller is a web designer from Calgary, Alberta in Canada. Up until 5 years ago she hadn’t really touched a computer let alone designed a website but about a year ago she became very interested and started learning about and designing websites. With her educational background in visual arts she became a “natural” designer because of the parallels with her visual arts background and since then she’s been designing for the web.
Daniel Scocco is an online marketing professional from Brazil. After he finished studying International Economics at the Università Commerciale ‘Luigi Bocconi’ and living and studying around the world he has managed to startup two very successful websites and grow them into businesses.
