How Learning to code makes you a better product designer?

From the memories of Guest author....

Learning to code.

Let me explain. I am not suggesting product designers should also code or developers should be designers but learning to grasp on code logics will benefit you as a product designer. You should try to do it as this is the most proficient way.

I studied coding quite extensively in high school and then a little bit on my own later. But this doesn’t mean you have to go to school to learn the basics.

All of my memories are on C, C++, VB, JAVA are long way gone including the interims of command lines & actual syntax of the languages. But once you get a sense of the logic, you won’t forget it, it’ll be yours forever. And this will benefit you immensely as a product designer. It will also make you popular among developers as their favorite designer to work with.

If you really want to commit (Github intended) you can try learning real coding, like Javascript or maybe PHP. Both of these works with Code Pen which is a tremendous engine to make small games also in 2D if you’re interested in such products. Or maybe you can try Swift if you aim to release on Apple devices.

Any of those, despite how simple they are according to engineers will most probably scare the s**t out of you, once you step a little further from the very basic stuff. That requires dedication towards coding and, most importantly the TIME. If you are a full-time employed designer, probably you don’t have to spare time.

There’s a shortcut, though.

As I said in the beginning, you don’t really need to drop lines of codes like you are coding the Matrix.

You just need to have love of coding and get more conscious of what developers you will work with facing every single day

To do so there are so many engines, mostly made for games, that doesn’t compel you to write down code or remember them like a counter strike.

Now, if you are an engineer and reading this, I know "TH4TS NO7 CODING" but bear me for a second, I am just trying to help you.

Amazing products work with behaviors and logic blocks when put together in order to derive something happen. Imagine like a flowchart, you use these blocks to create the code without actually seeing the code.

It’s not as simple as you might think, though. You will still have to understand what variables are, what kind of variables, you’ll need (integer, float, double, char…), if a variable has to be global or local, how an IF works and how to make a series of IFs work, “repeat” cycles, “while” cycles, find bugs (oh, there’ll be plenty), etc ., Before you can come up with a real working product you’ll need to spend a really good amount of time, sweat and swear.

But

It’ll be immense faster than learning a programming language. And it will serve the purpose.

You’ll finally understand how hard it is to code, and when you go to a developer asking for even “the most slightest change”, they’ll look at you like as if you have eyed their Porsche. You’ll know why eventually.

(It also works the other way around. You won’t be easily be-fooled as easily when they tell you they need 2 weeks “to make that button a little more bouncy”. This is our secret, perhaps the engineers stopped reading when I said “there’s a shortcut”, so we’re safe).

As a product designer,

What really Important is not the syntax of code! What you need to understand is the just the logic behind it!