UI design and coding

[Alex_M]

Hello everyone,

Please don't jump on me, I know this topic has been discussed plenty of times, but I'm just a little confused. Do most UI designers code their stuff? Or do they literally just stop at the look and feel of the app? Only reason I ask, I'm a print designer who recently got into UI design (or at least what I thought UI design was) and have designed UIs in Fireworks for fun, not for clients. I've come across some jobs where people want UI design, but when I tell them I don't code, they basically tell me to f off. It was to my understanding that a UI designer passes the coding off to someone who actually knows code, and works with them to get their interface to an actual working app. Am I way off on this?

Thanks!

 

[Phreaddee]

most of the time, the UI designer is the web designer and the web developer so without even a working knowledge you're chances of getting employment over others that can code is quite slim.

and generally speaking a UI designer in an agency would more than likely have had some coding experience before they moved towards UI. the thing that defines UI over graphic design, is that they specialise in interfaces, and the nature of this is that an interface needs to be coded, so in summary you SHOULD know code, even if on a daily basis you don't actually code.

and besides if you can take your interface design and create the structure behind it, then no one needs to "translate" your design. (and trust me things do get lost in translation) and the developers can work on the more advanced elements of the site (and the inevitable grunt work) rather than piecing together the interface from a mockup because really, if all you can offer is the actual design then its not overly helping the dev team anyway.

but kudos for using fireworks. I STILL dont get why people design sites in photoshop...

 

[Alex_M]

Thank you for the explanation. That makes sense, there's just so many opinions and statements out there it was getting a little confusing. And yea, I don't get why so many people use photoshop either? Oh well. Thanks again.