Hardcore old school print designers know papers, know inks, know fonts. By same token, we creating UX must be literate in code.
Literacy!= Fluency — it is just being able to know enough of a language to have a decent conversation
Believes in a few years we won’t hire designers that can’t code. (Makes me think of LukeW who says in future we won’t have time for wireframes.)
Making is good for projects. Small details of color and font are important to the user. If you can just fix it yourself it is much faster.
Instead of telling someone else how to paint, you get to hold the brush.
Caveat is can step on toes. Use humility. Establish the spots okay to do.
TDD and Story writing using Cucumber.. Getting right syntax. Helped his UX/UI practice be because used ubiquitous language, as devs
Ask devs to have basic tools ( like in rails bundled, rake, etc)
So can do small changes, GIT allows you to save, like in a vid game.
Can contribute to production and they can role it back.
Learned Rspec and Capybara test programs
Know about breakages quickly from these
JQuery helps you write sonnets or paint inside the lines
Uses personas a lot, within cucumber
Testers will use Homer Simpson as the persona if you don’t supply!
“it is critically important to do things not just read about them” (or just attend classes and conferences haha).
Work Different 