I work for a company who associate “development” as part of the design department. There is no “development team”, just a Design team.

My company recently merged and I had to take a mini interview to keep my job.
I’m a web designer, My primary skill is design, I also code in HTML and CSS to W3C standards.

I took the test, and the interviewer who knew nothing about code, asked if I had intermediate knowledge of Javascript. I told him no, but I know how to implement Jquery…
Although I kept my job, apparently I didn’t at first, because of my reply being “no” to Javascript Knowledge.

My Company hire designers for under 30k to come up with fresh concept designs and code the final product in HTML/CSS Flash & Jquery. It’s extremely taxing, and slows down the workflow, but my team are used to it, and to be honest they allow themselves to be walked over.

Before I merged, my old company had a web developer who would do the coding. I can code to the same level as him, but for better workflow, it makes sense that i solely work on creating a design that will bring in revenue, pass it on.., then work on the next design.

to conclude my rant..

I agree that Web designers in a company should know how to code in HTML/CSS. But only to know the techniques and limitations of HTML/CSS.

btw Mark, I agree Fireworks is the better solution for UI. I absolutely hate photoshop. Unfortunately, my new design team don’t use fireworks. So I “must” use photoshop. say’s my new Head of design.

I think that it’s fair enough to not be a coder if you’re a Graphic Designer, but if you’re operating under the title of Web Designer, then I do think there needs to be some level of understanding there – for me, that’s how I would separate the roles.

You stated that not being able to code “will really limit your options for employment”, I don’t totally agree with you on this one. In smaller companies it’s a valid point but I think that for larger companies it’s no problem at all. The larger the companies like to have employers who are more specialized because they have well.. more employers.

Personally I don’t like to code and therefor I don’t do it that much but, I’m capable of doing so on a basic level.

But… for any young Designer starting out that wants to be a Web Designer, it is going to be a LOT harder to get a job in the current economy without being able to do all of the things expected of a full-pledged Web Designer. That would be the main thing I want to emphacise… so much is getting expected now by employers. I have even heard of some employers in Belfast here asking for Web Designers to have experience with “Web Technologies”, i.e. things like jQuery and AJAX.

It’s a tough industry out there to break into now, and the harsh economic times are making it harder to get that ideal job (because employers want more and more from candidates). We don’t make the rules unfortunately, so we just have to roll with the times now and again.

But I also think that it makes a lot of sense to have “front-end designers” and “back-end developers” because no matter how much I learn about HTML and CSS, there is no way that I’ll be able to keep up with PHP, SQL, and jQuery while ALSO maintaining my design skills. It’s just too much for one person to do really well (in most cases).

I’m with you — I code (and I actually enjoy it). I learned because I felt the same way you do: it’s the gold standard. But, it’s frustrating that we all accept that “Programmers minds don’t work that way — they just can’t do design” but as an artist, my mind is supposed to be able to handle anything. Most designers aren’t mathematically inclined, and code is frustrating for them. For those designers, I think it’s important that they learn what can or can’t be achieved in webdesign with code — but I don’t necessarily think that they need to be able to pull out wordpad and code everything from scratch to be successful. Would they be MORE successful if they could code AND design? Probably. But, I don’t think that all designers who can’t code should pack it up and find a new career.

I totally agree too about the Web Developers needing to have some understanding of design to at least pick up on the little details put in there. But at the same time, I think that could be expecting something that may never be possible from someone who’s mind doesn’t work like a Designers.

It is quite a complex topic for me too in some ways because… I am NOT natural programmer or coder, whatsoever. It is a forced effort for me to learn this stuff, but I have made myself learn what I needed to in order to bring some of my work to life.

All the best Web Designers I know are awesome coders and designers, so with that being the benchmark for what success is… I think in some ways that does illustrate the need to know the code.