There are many different points of view on the question: “Do designers need to be able to code?” Often people who can code say, “Definitely”, people who do not, often say “not really”. In the interactive world, there are people who are passionate about design and there are people who are passionate about code- there is overlap there but its very small. I’ve compiled a list of awesome tools for the designers who doesn’t know how to, or flat out refuses to code.

1. Adobe Muse

   If you are a designer, then you are most likely already familiar with the Adobe Creative Suite. This newcomer to the suite Adobe Muse promises big things for the code-fearing designer.  Best of all its in Beta right now so its free until the 1.0 release in early 2012. Plenty of time to get familiar with it, get up and running, before you shell out anything to own it.

   

   Using this tool you will go through the familiar steps of web design in a familiar adobe interface. The tools allow you to

   1. Plan your site with sitemaps and master pages.
   2. Design with freedom combining images, text and graphics in a comfortable “laying out” process and focus on the designing- not the technology.
   3. Add interactive features without messing with Javascript or jQuery like auto-generated navigation, slideshows, accordion panels, lightboxes etc.
   4. Publishing features offer you testing and preview before going live, hosting options and browser compatibility options without the headache and finally simple ftp upload to your hosting provider.

   Resources:
   http://muse.adobe.com/index.html
   http://www.lynda.com/Muse-1-0-tutorials/Muse-Beta-Preview/87001-2.html

2. Coffeecup

   Coffeecup software company launched Visual Site Designer in May of 2011. This is a robust option for our Windows using friends and is a mere pittance at $49 when you compare it to some of the Creative Suite components. What is appealing about this software is its entirely WYSIWYG. You drag and drop text and graphics into place and then customize them with all the fancy elements that knowing javascript could provide but faster and much easier. You get 10 professional themes from which to start from and a full suite of easy to use web design tools. What really caught my eye about this option is the active forum community they have established to help you along the way.

   Also, they have a free trial available for download, so if its not your cup of coffee, there’s no commitment.

   Resources:
   http://www.coffeecup.com/designer/

3. Alleycode
   

   This option is another FREE option for the designer who is familiar with code and can recognize CSS when she sees it but doesn’t feel comfortable diving into the deep end of writing code from scratch just yet. It’s basis is an HTML editor with some powerful user-friendly features similar to Dreamweaver but not as overwhelming. View HTML and design in a multi-view screen and see real time changes as you make them so this will actually build your confidence level with some coding if you’re so inclined. It offers lots of ready made interactive forms that simply Click ‘n’ Insert into your document and allow you to customize as needed. One of its strengths is an integrated CSS wizard that guides you in creating style sheets to give your site the modern look and feel that you want.

   Resources:

Happy Designing!

Kimberly Clark is a Content Strategist who enjoys helping clients navigate through web development in Louisville and beyond.  From pre-development goal specification to ongoing content strategies, she has a deep understanding of the tools of the trade like social media and SEO.  Kimberly is a data whiz and uses it to develop unique, original and interesting web content that keeps visitors engaged and interacting. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Louisville and works at: www.VIAStudio.com