Should Designers learn how to code or is Adobe Muse enough?

It’s an argument as old as time - or at least as old as the Internet: To code or not to code? A perennial form-versus-function debate, the question pits the visually-geared design set against the pro-HTML contingent in an argument over whether design is pointless without technological understanding. Flash standard-bearer Adobe Systems is trying to squash the beef. With new website authoring tool Muse, Adobe claims to combine the ability to create highly functioning, unique websites with a back end that won’t confound technical novices.

“It has to be acknowledged that visual design and actually coding are two very different skill sets and everybody isn’t wired to be master craftspeople at both.” — Kristy Tillman, a designer at global firm IDEO

Though still in beta, Muse has already created a stir, some calling it a great compromise while others say it needs more work to be a viable sitebuilder. Though it won’t be released as a paid product until early 2012, it’s clear the product meant to curb the design/code debate has already added more fuel to the fire.

Designers and coders both play a key role in creating web spaces - designers adding elegance to everything from landing pages to user interfaces, while coders create the pages of brackets and letters that tell the computer how to produce visuals.

It’s like architects and contractors - both work on the same house, but in different ways, says Adrian Roselli, founder and senior usability engineer at Alqonguin Studios, a software development and IT consulting firm in Buffalo, NY. And as in the construction world, designers and coders sometimes don’t have a full respect for each other’s role - something Roselli says goes back to the Internet’s early days, when folks were still learning how things worked.

“People found very quickly they tended to be better at design or at code,” and a rivalry was born, explained Roselli, who himself foundered at design.

The core of the debate is straightforward. Design hardliners argue that not everyone is meant to code, and handing design plans to developers is an effective way of creating functional digital spaces while respecting everybody’s talents.

“It has to be acknowledged that visual design and actually coding are two very different skill sets and everybody isn’t wired to be master craftspeople at both,” says Kristy Tillman, a designer at global firm IDEO, and occasional dabbler in HTML and CSS.

Not so, say pro-coders who argue that without a sturdy grasp on HTML, a designer’s best efforts can be futile.

“Somebody can put together a design, the client can really like it and the coder can go ‘We can’t do it’ - it’s either technically impossible or impractical,” Roselli says. “Then somebody has to go back to the client.”

Muse was envisioned as a happy medium, says Jane Brady, who manages group product marketing in Adobe’s design segment.

“Designers have long told us that they wanted to be able to create websites, but that they wanted to do so as easily as laying out a page in InDesign,” she says. Adobe says Muse’s strength lies in its above average capabilities.

“Most website authoring tools that allow people to create a site without writing any code restrict the design to template,” she says. “Muse allows designers to create a totally unique site - starting from a blank, white page.”

But feedback has varied widely.

“While it’s unlikely to convert experienced Dreamweaver users or HTML/JavaScript knowledgeable (sic) web designers, Adobe Muse is going to end up being a lot of graphic designers’ web page editing tool of choice,” blogged the folks at Atlanta-based training group Sterling, Ledet & Associates recently.

English designer illustrator and blogger Elliot Jay Stocks, meanwhile, countered that Muse is “a step in the wrong direction,” and criticized the non web-safe typography and “ugly” code as proof of a flawed product.

Roselli considers Muse ideal mostly for photographers wanting to showcase their work.

“But as a tool for a website that needs regular updates … or a site that needs to work well on a mobile display and a desktop, I think Muse just can’t do it,” he says, pointing to code access limitations.

Designers and coders can agree that being as well-rounded as possible is a growing workforce commodity. Roselli says colleges have responded by better integrating digital media arts programs to balance design skills and technical skills.

And as sites become more dynamic, having that balance will rise in importance whether you’re designing user interfaces or simply logos.

“We live in the screen age - what if that logo needs to spin or move on a display? What if the logo could be interactive?” Tillman says. “… It’s beneficial to at least know what technologies are available to you.”

Tillman straddles the fence on the issue, seeing the benefit of knowing some code, but remaining securely in the design camp.

Ultimately, she says having strong fundamental skills - whether they’re design- or code-related - is what will make any creative professional succeed.

“Muse is simply a tool,” Tillman says. “It’s impotent in the hands of someone who can’t think.” —ndm