Remove abstractions

Why don’t more designers write production code?

Industrial designers know how machines work. They build prototypes with real materials. Architects understand buildings. Fashion designers know fabric. Stonemasons know rock. Yet software designers rarely understand their material - code.

When I started designing, coding was part of the job. We wrote CSS and HTML with some jQuery, often working with complex DOM structures from Drupal or Magento. You’d receive markup and be expected to “go design”.

After a decade in the industry, I’ve watched coding become a dying art among designers.

Instead, designers hide behind abstractions: mockups, documents, workshops, and user journey maps. These tools aren’t bad - they’re necessary for communication. But we’ve mistaken these communication tools for product design. They are not.

Many designers spend excessive time creating these assets to compensate for not understanding code and particularly their production application. They rely on pulling engineers left and right or more likely - making wild assumptions and hoping for the best.

Modern tools like vO and Replit make prototyping easier but allow designers to avoid learning how code actually works. While throwaway prototypes might help explore ideas, they create more waste alongside existing documentation and mockups. You’re still working at an abstraction.

You’ll never know if your idea is going to work until you make it.

Remove the abstractions.