Q: Tell us about yourself

My name is Maria. Currently, I am a full-time product designer based in Arizona. I have a bachelor’s degree in visual communication and I have worked as a graphic designer for several years prior to transitioning to the world of digital products.

Q: How did you decide to learn to code?

I have created some personal websites using Squarespace and Weebly in the past, as well as coded some simple websites, so HTML & CSS were not completely new to me. Nevertheless, I wanted to build upon the knowledge I already had. It’s massively time-saving to be able to both design and code.

On top of that, designers with front-end web development skills are highly sought after and a lot of remote designer jobs require front-end development abilities.

Prior to enrolling at Altcademy, I had actually completed a different bootcamp in Product Design. However, that one did not go deeply into front-end web development. I wanted to master the prior coding knowledge that I had so I could write clean, production-ready HTML and CSS for my designs at work.

With the understanding of JavaScript and dynamic web development, I can practically make products as nice as my sketch mockups and build prototypes to test interactions.

Q: What’s your experience going through Altcademy?

I like that the curriculum goes very in-depth. I want to make sure that I make things perfectly. Every pixel matters! Altcademy gave me the additional knowledge I needed to accomplish this.

Coding can definitely be challenging but as soon as I mastered a particular concept, all of the previous confusion begins to make sense.

Altcademy was a great choice for me because I wanted to keep my full-time job while affordably develop my coding skills in my free time. It’s nice to be able to work at your own pace while still having a class schedule to go by and to track your process.

I love that I get my questions answered quickly and practice the concepts with assignments and tests. I am glad I discovered Altcademy from great reviews on SwitchUp and Course Report.

Q: How does knowing how to code help a designer?

Knowing how to code makes you a better designer! A large part of the designer’s job is to work with developers, so it’s very beneficial if we can speak the same coding language.

It also opens up a whole new world of job opportunities whether you’re looking for freelance gigs or permanent employment.

Many designers want to learn to code, but a lot of them are scared of coding because programming can be very daunting when you are starting out. It takes time to get through that hurdle. Given patience and commitment, anyone can learn to code! My goal is to be able to write efficient code for the projects I work on at my job.