In an article published on TechCrunch last year, Carson Miller discusses why The Future Of Front-End Development Is Design. Building new digital products is easier and more affordable than ever, but you still have to build a product that users love…and therein lies the challenge.

It requires a deep understanding of your intended users and a vision for how to deliver a delightful experience to solve their needs. It also requires a workflow that allows product teams to rapidly test, learn and iterate the product experience, the business model and the value proposition. - Carson Miller

Interaction product design and user experience design are growing in popularity and companies are adapting their teams to follow this collaborative process of getting minimum viable products (MVPs) to market quickly, learning from customer feedback and user testing, and iterating over the product.

In today’s job market, code literacy is an essential skill for designers and managers, not just developers. Companies want to hire individuals that are skilled in product design and front-end development, reducing the hours spent on designs before handing off to development team. Product designers with front-end development experience have a better understanding of how their designs will be built which enables them to create designs that can be implemented. For front-end developers, understanding the significance of product design and the impact that it has on their end users, leads to thoughtful UI decisions instead of the “well, it works” mentality. Understanding each other’s role makes for better communication all around.

The demand for this hybrid role is growing quickly in Nashville, which is why we created our Front-End Web Designer/Developer Bootcamp. This bootcamp combines our front-end curriculum with user experience design and will give students the skills they need to work as a user experience designer (interaction product designer), front-end developer, or in a hybrid role that utilizes all of these skills.

Applications for our Front-End Web Designer/Developer Bootcamp in January 2018 will be closing soon, so if you’re considering applying, submit your applications this week.

For anyone who plays a part in influencing the users and customers experience of a website or application — front-end developers, product managers, CEO’s, graphic designers — consider our professional development course UI/UX for Digital Product Design. The next session starts February 2018.