<Empowering designers to code />
Diana Mounter Senior Product Designer at Etsy
Diana Mounter @broccolini
<Empowering designers to code />
This is not about whether designers should code or not
Or how to make designers code if they don’t want to
This is about ways you can empower designers to code,
and some of it's benefits
The first website I built as part of my job was 10 years ago.
Etsy is the first place where I’ve really felt empowered to code.
My boss didn’t know what I was doing and just wanted the website built (for free)
Started at Etsy
Setup dev environment?
Git commit what?!
How to push O_o
Where is all the code?
How to run tests?
Designers who could code,but don’t as part of their job
Companies want designers who can code
Where to start?
<Start with onboarding />
Set up development environments from the beginning
Ship something
Install text editor Setup aliases in terminal Virtual Machine Authenticate SSH keys with GitHub Setup Bash files Know how to run tests Know the IRC commands for deploying
?
D E P L O Y I N G
The first push program demystifies the process. Anyone can push code, given the right support.
The first push program demystifies the process. Anyone can push code, given the right support.
The buddy system
Build relationships during onboarding and training
<Build confidence />
Give designers a safe way to practice with production code
Teach designers to use Git
Teach designers about branching
Encourage code reviews
Prototyping (with production code)
Code gives engineers a better idea of your intent
Designing in the browser
<Document everything />
Documentation allows people to be autonomous
There’s no silver bullet to keeping documentation up-to-date
Use routine events to review documentation
<Improve workflows with tooling />
Tooling can make designing in code much more enjoyable.
Make it easy to see how code impacts the user experience
Robots are better at testing than humans
Reduce the feedback loop
Reduce the feedback loop
<Culture />
Make coding part of your design culture
<What happens when designers code? />
They build a new style guide
It that means engineers can get further without designers
699 deletions
Start with onboarding
Start with onboarding Build confidence
Start with onboarding Build confidence Document everything
Start with onboarding Build confidence Document everything Improve workflows with tooling
Start with onboarding Build confidence Document everything Improve workflows with tooling Made coding part of design culture
True collaboration isn’t throwing designs over the wall
It’s sharing the responsibility with your team to build a quality product
Thanks!