The newest popular belief is that coding will be the next item in everyone’s computer literacy checklist. Designers, UX professionals, and some more interesting politicians are working on their coding skills with various reasonings behind their decisions. But does everyone need to know coding?
I, for example, am a developer. I need to know coding. I also do not need to know much about color theory, usability testing, or personas, but knowing some of those do make me a better developer.
At first, coding seems like a completely different mindset than what most of us is used to. And the thing is, you don’t know if it’s your thing until you try it. Who knows, maybe you will feel what I felt 10 or so years ago wandering into my first programming class and falling in love with that new world of binary things: of things that either work, or not, of the perfection of code compared to the subjectivity of graphic design that I was struggling with back then.
So definitely go try coding, and see if you get the hang of it! A good way to get started is the next MOMECODE class, where you can pick up the basics quickly with the help of Budapest’s finest frontend professionals. I will be there to guide you too. :)
As a creative developer, I balance between frontend development, application design and coordinating development processes. I’m also the lead tutor at MOMECODE.
Anyone can be a great graphic designer, UX professional, product manager, etc, without knowing how to code. But it doesn’t hurt. Knowing current trends, typical problems, and having a broad sense of how stuff works certainly helps.
At MOMECODE, we are offering a lot more than this broad sense to our applicants. We offer a base knowledge that they can use, after some practice, to work as a frontend developer after the course.
The first MOMECODE class graduated this May with flying colors, and we’re about to start the next class on the 5th of October.
We go through the languages of the web (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), the standards and their history. We talk about the coding aspects of accessible, usable and optimal solutions, things like the mobile first approach, SEO, or social media integrations.
The syllabus changed a lot during the first semester and will most likely keep adapting next time too to the needs of the new class. We had some lectures on the principles of the web and hands-on workshops to learn through common frontend development problems.
Last time, we wanted to end the training with projects that give real coding experience and can even stand out in a portfolio. We found HashtagCharity to be the perfect match for us. Their platform connects charities and tech professionals like us to work together on high-impact technology projects. This way we didn’t just work on made up projects with our students, but managed to make something meaningful together. We are proud to say that during the last 2.5 weeks of MOMECODE I, each of the 4 teams went from a short brief and a few assets to a modern responsive website that they presented at our ending ceremony in May.
And we are already working on picking the best fitting charity projects for the next class.
MOMECODE I, Team Otter
The people, the tutees and tutors were adorable. I loved the collaboration on meaningful and here-to-stay projects. We got to know each other and each other’s qualities and can take advice from each other even after the course.
I'd like to point out that besides helping the designer-developer collaboration, learning HTML and CSS basics also helps on a UX path when one doesn’t want to make the compromise of choosing vertical OR linear prototyping tools.
Experiencer, marketing, project manager, and lately graphic designer
MOMECODE I, Team Otter
I experienced obvious progress that I doubt I could ever achieve on my own. I have always loved to learn from professionals during live projects. And this course was just like that. Especially when the tutors were solving a problem 5 different ways.
Besides coding itself, the core take-away for me was a new perspective on everything I work on that needs a web solution. The designs I create don’t stop at looking nice, they need to work too. Looking at my work this way makes communication with the developers much easier and enables me to present to clients with better alternatives during a project.
I kept telling Szajmon for years that the world needs such a training.
