The short answer is yes, but just how much you need to know will very much depend on what you want to do. There is a wide range of graphic design related careers out there in the wild and each of them will have more or less to do with the web. It’s a spectrum out there and you’ll need to figure out where you want to fit. The more you know, the more opportunities there will be out there for you.
For the longer answer, let’s walk through just a handful of the common design related job titles. For this, I spent some time on Dribble Jobs looking through the various job titles and postings. This is a very well respected place for designers to job search and should serve as a good sample of what companies are looking for in candidates and what the coding expectations are.
I’ll give an overview for each of what these people commonly do and how much code knowledge is typically necessary for competency in that particular role.
Web Designer
It seems pretty obvious that if you truly want to work as a web designer, you’ll need to learn to write code. There are people out there that consider themselves professional web designers that haven’t learned to write code and get by, but true professionals can tell the difference. In order to build websites that meet modern standards and are easily updated and maintained, you’ll need to be able to write good, well-organized, semantic code.
The term web designer is in itself very broad. There are web designers out there that are required to perform tasks that are typically left to developers, and there are web designers that never write a line of code, but instead create mockups of sites in design software like Adobe Photoshop. You’ll have to read the job descriptions very carefully on this one.
Some companies will divide the role of web designer into two roles: front-end and back-end.
Front-end vs. Back-end
The front-end designer is typically responsible for creating the overall look of a website. They make the design decisions such as: hierarchy, color, type, and layout.
More often than not, especially in newer and more tech savvy companies, the front-end person will write the HTML and CSS for the sites they design. They will need to take into account mobile devices and responsive design techniques so the website is functional and meets the visual standards on any browser and any device.
In this case, this person will need to be very knowledgable of the most recent versions of HTML and CSS, modern web standards, and in many cases will also need to be able to write at least some Javascript. As a front-end designer, you will often work directly with the back-end developer.
Note: The back-end developer tends to look a lot like a traditional web developer. They are responsible for a majority of the interactive parts of the website if not all of them. In companies where the front-end person only creates design mockups, they will build the entire website including the HTML and CSS, so its important that the stay current with the most recent web standards and versions of HTML and CSS.
The back-end developer will commonly be responsible for the setup and maintenance of the database, the server(s), and any part of the website that generates on the fly. These people require a deep knowledge of HTML, CSS, Javascript, database setup and administration, and also some computer programming.
UX/UI Designer
In the past few years, more and more jobs with the words “User Experience” or “User Interaction” have appeared with the title Designer. This seems to have developed from a need to have a hybrid, a unicorn if you will. Companies are commonly seeking candidates that are a combination of: well-trained graphic designer, capable front-end designer, and also a knowledgable researcher and a touch of sociologist.
What I mean by this is that a User Experience Designer or User Interaction Designer is largely responsible for all the design decisions on digital products and in some cases physical products. They are in charge of ensuring that the user has the best possible experience or interaction (thus the titles) when using a product be it a website, an application, a mobile app, or really any other designed product.
This doesn’t just include the overall layout, colors, or type choices, but more importantly the combination of these things, with the actual behavior of the user. UI/UX designers need to very carefully think through each step a user will take to accomplish the various goals of the product and the various options a user has/will have for accomplishing that goal.
A UI or UX Designer will make decisions on some very large things like overall layout, some medium things like whether or not a certain feature will fly out from the top or from the side, and some very small things, like whether a button will be blue or red when you hover over it based on how positively a user might respond. They control every small step, think through every screen and every pop-up. They control every interaction a user has with a product and ensure that it promotes the best case use for the target audience, the current social norms, all available devices, and the current state of technology.
Not all UX or UI Designers will write code, but many will. Many will fill roles that combine UI or UX with front-end web design. The UI or UX designers who have a good solid understanding of HTML and CSS will likely be asked to mockup their ideas in code so there is no room for interpretation.
Even of those who won’t be writing actual code, all people working in this role will need to have a basic understanding of code and code mechanics in order to do a good job in this position. Those who don’t write code, will be expected to know enough to have a meaningful conversation with a developer or front-end web designer in order to turn their ideas into code without misinterpretation. They will be expected to understand what is and is not possible with the current technology or end user or device they are working on.
Product Designer
A product designer tends to hold a role very similar to a web designer, but instead of websites, they design products. A product tends to be one isolated piece of software. There are a variety of things that could be considered a product, but the most common are things like: games, mobile apps, or even websites that are dedicated to performing a single-focused task or set of tasks (often called a web app, think Facebook for example).
A product designer tends to be the person that makes the design decisions for the look and feel of that particular product or component part of a product, they may even have some responsibility for the UI or UX of that product.
They are at the very least, are expected to have a solid working knowledge of modern web standards, HTML, and CSS so that they can work seamlessly in conjunction with a developer, though many will be expected to be able to build out the front-end components of the finished products.
Digital Designer
A digital designer tends to hold a role very similar to a web designer or product designer, but instead of websites, they design component parts to a variety of things that will eventually be viewed on a screen. These things could include: infographics, web banners, landing pages, motion graphics, presentations, and web features.
A digital designer tends to be the person that not only does the design work, but also ensures that all newly created items match the brand in which they belong.
Since digital designers are responsible for such a variety of end products to be used in an even wider variety of places, they are expected to have a vast working knowledge of all digital technologies. They may be asked to build out finished products in the case of simple websites and landing pages, but at the very least will be expected to be able to expertly communicate with a web developer about implementing the designs that they have created. This will require at least a strong working knowledge of code.
Visual or Graphic Designer
As of a decade or two ago, this was a very specific job with some very specific job requirements and domain knowledge, but today, this is the most broad job title out there. A graphic or visual designer used to work exclusively in print design and had a good solid understanding of logo design and page layout.
Today, a visual or graphic designer can be responsible for just about anything. In some rare cases, they may still only be expected to handle items for print, but in the majority of cases, they are asked to do design work across all physical and digital mediums. This means that one day you may be designing a set of icons for the website and the next you might actually be designing the website.
You might have the luxury of working with a trained developer in some cases, which could mean that you perform the front-end work or that you just create the static mockups. Either way, it’s important that you are knowledgable enough to contribute to the project in a meaningful way.
Even if your plan is to learn just enough to be a useful design counterpart to your web design or developer colleague, you’ll need to learn enough about writing code and code mechanics that you can have a tech specific conversation about web design. This will mean that you should get yourself really familiar with the basics of HTML and CSS.