There has been recent debate about whether a web designer should know HTML and CSS. This isn’t a blog post to prove either side right or wrong; both have their own advantages and disadvantages. This post is about personal advantages of knowing HTML and CSS, and being only once small voice in a larger conversation. I happen to be one of the individuals who learned code before developing my design skill set. I encourage you to catch up on the topic as there are some great points being discussed.

Finding Beauty in Code

I’m one of those eccentric designers who is able to find beauty and appreciation in the code I write. Writing semantic, standards compliant HTML, and intelligent CSS is as important to me as jumping into Photoshop and creating the best mockup I can. I’m always conscious about the next step in my workflow, and that statement is no more prevalent than when I am inside Photoshop painting pixels on the screen.

As my mockups come together in Photoshop, the code that will breathe life into them, and transform them into an actual website, livens. Being able to understand the limitations of your medium while designing for it is the most important advantage of knowing how to code. Designing with markup in mind will provide you with final code that does not have to bend or break to accommodate your mockup. The code remains clean, standards compliant, and accessible.

Drawing Inspiration and Ideas

Not everything a website does can be represented in a mockup; it lacks interactivity and functionality. Having a strong understanding of the capabilities of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other languages, can help you look past the mockup and begin to design pieces of interactivity that usually only occurs during the coding stages.

I draw a lot of inspiration from these avenues, and they usually blossom into larger ideas. Had I not understood the capabilities of code that were going to be implemented for my design, I may never have touched upon them.

I Am a Web Designer

There’s one truth I stand by personally when it comes to my profession; in order to design for the web, I need to understand how the web works. I can build on this idea, but for the sake of this blog post, I’m narrowing it down to primarily HTML and CSS. This statement may not apply to everyone, but in my case, it makes me a better web designer.

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