Programming for Designers 101
How programming my UX portfolio taught me how to be a more empathetic designer
My coding experience has been no stroll in the park. Though, from my understanding, this is the case for many students and professionals. I will detail the story of how I was able to shift my pessimistic view of programming to something that could empower my academic and professional careers.
Spring 2018
Having just discovered that my dream career would be in design and engineering, I underwent the daunting task of taking the introductory coding course at my college. This class was notorious for “weeding” people out. Meaning the goal was that people would take the class, realize coding and computer science would be too difficult to pursue, and thus change their academic course of action. As you might imagine going in knowing this, as a freshman, was not necessarily the most encouraging.
Let me tell you; the class was no joke. Collaborating with peers was discouraged, and it was counted as cheating if you worked together with someone to solve a problem. I doubted myself during every assignment and came home from class crying on a few occasions. I felt alone, and like I was an imposter. If I couldn’t succeed in this course, how was I supposed to excel in my tech-focused major?
Week after week, I continued to question why I was choosing to go into a field where I would need to apply skills I had such a hard time gaining. Though I eventually made it through the class, I came out with an overwhelmingly bleak outlook on programming as a whole.
Fall 2019
Fast forward a year and a half, and I am decently comfortable in my major. I’ve taken plenty of courses, made some cool friends, and have meaningful connections with faculty. However, the time came for my peers and me to take the mandatory programming class within our major. I was terrified. My prior experience with coding was dreadful, and I felt uncomfortable knowing that I might experience these same negative feelings again.
Yet, to my surprise, this class encouraged collaboration and working with the people around you. Being in this open environment and working on similar problems to the people around me made me feel secure and enlightened some aspects of coding that I do enjoy. Nothing could match the thrill of your code finally compiling after working on it for an hour. With aid from my instructor, TAs, and friends, I learned how collaborative programming might play a relevant, important role in my career. Notably, I gained a deeper appreciation for a designer’s role in development.
Mind you, at this point, I was still not a necessarily strong developer. It took me lengthy amounts of time to grasp a new concept, and I even got immensely frustrated with my projects. Though I had a transformed perspective of programming and had the epiphany, coding does not always have to be a negative, lonely experience.
You see, I take long breaks in between heavy programming undertakings.
Summer 2020
So, almost another year later I hesitantly took another coding class that is not required in my degree program. I say hesitantly because even though I came out of my previous class with a more optimistic look on programming, I still had the idea that I was not going to be pursuing a coding-heavy career at the end of college. At this moment, I still believe that to be true, but I’ve added a layer to programming that I had not considered before: empathy.
Though I don’t think I will be the person developing applications per say, I recognize that as a UX Designer I will still be involved in the process. In any functional product team, designers and developers will have to work together and communicate ideas effectively. Acknowledging this aspect of my future career has lead my motivation to comprehend the extents and limits to what can be done technically. Part of me furthering this knowledge was my participation in my most recent programming class that taught web development.
My instructor for this class promoted using available resources on the internet and further encouraged us to collaborate with one another. Again, this open approach to coding allowed me to fully engage with the material and start developing my UX portfolio. I initially started from scratch, but found myself using a React template to get my website started. This launched my fascination with building my portfolio and I ended up loving to spend time working on it.
Throughout the year, I had been developing my personal brand and discovering what kind of designer I want to be. I found that having experience in coding has prompted me to engage in accessible, empowering, and empathetic design practices. Having experienced a rollercoaster of emotions throughout this process, I can solidly say that I don’t think I will be the best programmer in the world, but I know I will be able to effectively communicate ideas with developers and collaborate with them knowledgably. Acknowledging the bounds of what is possible has facilitated my understanding of dynamic product teams and what it takes to design successfully.
TLDR: I have learned that design and development are intertwined and that, for designers, understanding the basics of programming can help you play a more empathetic role in creating a successful design.
