Do Yourself a Favor. Learn to Code. (Then Teach Me.)

Hi Virginia – this is a great post and one that I think has been a long time coming. I started teaching myself CSS and HTML in college and wrapped it nicely into my writing and marketing career. Now even as a Marketing Director I still use my code skills on a daily basis. I built and maintain our company websites – saving us thousands in outsourcing costs. And I really like the control I get by being able to dive under the hood and do everything myself.

Thanks for introducing me to codeacademy – I’ve been trying to teach my designer some basic code and this will probably serve him much better than I would. :)

Thanks Virginia for providing great knowledge full resource.

I think its really important to get to know the coding himself first because with that you can get to know how other people are working if you outsource any work.

Great post, Virginia! I admit I just started learning basics of code when I worked heavily in email marketing, and learned a lot about rendering engines, browser comparability and such, I’m now learning a lot more about HTML for websites thanks to your team, and am bookmarking this post. Your list is helpful to me as we overhaul our site! I may not be doing the coding but to manage people who are, I need to speak the same language.

IA’s and Content Creators need to code too! I’ve been slowly teaching myself as I support clients through various CMS systems, so I’m not at the mercy of developers who keep me waiting or underdeliver.

Andy, I feel ya there. Making the time is probably the biggest challenge of all.

The very thought of coding brings me out in a cold sweat and I start to twitch – I think it’s a phobia, I need help!

Beyond very basic html I am clueless, for now I will get by but should the time permit I will face up and conquer!

codecademy.com —> I too like this site, so I signed up and then… nothing- ugh! no time ;-)

Thanks, Mark. While I rely on Pixelsilk for a lot of the heavy lifting on our site, I’d be at a great disadvantage if I couldn’t dig into the HTML when necessary.

Stu, I have to say I’m honored to hear your CEO shared this post with your team. As you go along your learning process, I’d love to share stories.

Brandon, thanks for the recommendation. I’ll be checking out Udacity. Hands-on tasks make all the difference.

Try Udacity: http://www.udacity.com/

I’m pretty task-oriented, so learning to code has been a challenge since a lot of the material for beginners is very broad (write strings, do basic math, etc.) and I get bored easily. What’s nice about Udacity is that they give you a task that you’ll complete by the end of the course.

Hi V!

Our CEO of our company is on a drive to make coders out of us all, and rightly so considering our line of work! (Hence he sent this post to the team.)

At a glance Codeacademy looks like an easy way of learning, I’ll bookmark this page and check out the rest later.

Stu :)

Virginia,

This is a great post. It is such a powerful cultural shift for business online. Tip #1: Read first, then write.

Mark

Just ran across another example of programming as mandatory knowledge, shared by Facebook’s design director, Kate Aronowitz:

As a result, the vast majority of designers Aronowitz brings in house know how to code. It helps Facebook move faster, because they can hammer out prototypes on their own, and start testing various hypotheses, without having to wait on engineers. It’s a skill that Aronowitz herself doesn’t have, but one she told those gathered at the Designers Fund event will soon be essential. “I never learned,” she advised them, “but the next person who has my job will.”

(http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669610/kate-aronowitz-facebooks-design-director-on-crafting-a-design-led-organization)