I don't think so. While there are some scenarios that are better coded (where lots of different paths open up quickly, typically Excel-like), in many cases good designers are incredibly fast with Figma and I know no coder who can be that fast.
Also, they spend their time analyzing the problems and have many other things to hold in their head beside coding. It would be very challenging nowadays to both be a great UX designer and be current with the latest CSS evolutions.
That said, I wish more designers would try coding at some point and learn how a browser and website work to get a deeper understanding of the material they design for.
Also developers should understand the designers methods like journey maps, basic typography and layouting principles.
> It would be very challenging nowadays to both be a great UX designer and be current with the latest CSS evolutions.
Designers are supposed to be fluent in the medium they are designing for. Without understanding what's possible, what's easy, what's hard, what squeezes and what scales, or what's going to have a negative impact on site performance, how can one be a great designer?
Designers should be very familiar with the standard widgets, idioms, and interactions of the platforms they're designing for, but I don't think performance is rightfully something they should have to worry about.
> but I don't think performance is rightfully something they should have to worry about
But then I, as a developer, have to argue with the designer why a table containing a thousand rows or more, with no pagination, may not be a good idea :-(
I think a good designer polls his dev team to help him figure out what’s a “big lift” and whats easy. And a good developer works with her designer to point out “big lifts” and helps find compromises!
Also, they spend their time analyzing the problems and have many other things to hold in their head beside coding. It would be very challenging nowadays to both be a great UX designer and be current with the latest CSS evolutions.
That said, I wish more designers would try coding at some point and learn how a browser and website work to get a deeper understanding of the material they design for.
Also developers should understand the designers methods like journey maps, basic typography and layouting principles.