Forget "learn to code"
For a decade, the industry told designers to become developers. Learn JavaScript. Understand React. Ship your own features.
It was bad advice. Not because code doesn't matter — it does. But because asking a visual thinker to become a systems thinker is asking them to be mediocre at two things instead of exceptional at one.
The designers who changed how we interact with technology didn't do it by writing functions. They did it by seeing what others couldn't, then refusing to compromise until the thing matched the vision.
That hasn't changed. What's changed is how you get there.
"Asking a visual thinker to become a systems thinker is asking them to be mediocre at two things instead of exceptional at one."
The job we're actually describing
We're looking for someone who designs in the medium, not above it.
Not someone who hands over static frames and hopes engineering interprets them correctly. Someone who sits with the real thing — in the browser, on the device, in motion — and iterates until it's right.
You don't need to write the code. You need to direct it. AI has made that possible. The gap between your intent and the implementation has collapsed to a conversation.
But conversation requires fluency. Not fluency in syntax. Fluency in what's possible and what's expensive and why this animation feels wrong but that one feels inevitable.
The qualities that matter now
You have taste you can defend.
Not preferences — convictions. You know why this typeface and not that one. Why this spacing creates tension and that spacing creates calm. You've developed an eye, and you trust it.
You think in systems.
Not code systems — design systems. You see the button and the card and the form field as instances of patterns. You understand that consistency isn't constraint, it's kindness to users who don't want to relearn your interface on every screen.
You can articulate intent precisely.
"Make it pop" isn't direction. "Increase the contrast between the primary action and secondary options so the user's eye lands on checkout within the first 200ms" — that's direction. AI can execute the second. It will fumble the first.
You iterate at the speed of thought.
Five variations before lunch, not one polished comp by end of week. The tools now allow this. The question is whether your process does.
You're willing to look at code.
Not write it — look at it. Enough to know when the output is clean versus hacky, when the animation is performant versus janky, when the component is reusable versus a one-off mess. You're reviewing, not writing. But you're reviewing with opinion.
You fight for users.
When product wants to add friction for metrics, when engineering wants to cut corners for deadlines, when everyone's tired and ready to ship "good enough" — you're the one who says not yet. That's always been the job. It still is.
What we don't care about
Your Figma file organisation. Your handoff documentation. Your ability to write a React component from scratch. Your portfolio of static mockups.
We care about the live thing. Does it work? Does it feel right? Did you get it there?
Does it work? Does it feel right? Did you get it there?
— The only questions that matter
The shift
The designers who thrive in the next year won't be the ones who learned to code. They'll be the ones who learned to direct code — to sit in the browser, speak intent clearly, and iterate until the thing matches the vision.
The tools changed. The job didn't. You're still the one who sees what others can't, and refuses to ship until it's right.
You just get there faster now.