All of these "coders must learn design" articles ignore the fact that most programmers are not web developers and that sizable chinks of the industry simply never touch frontend code at all.<p>For a lot of developers there is little career incentive to develop design skills.
Coder trying to be a designer here. I've spent a lot of time reading books and experimenting, but what I am really missing are beginner tutorials on how to make the popular elements I see on websites in photoshop (or even principles of creating the different elements).<p>Maybe I am not looking in the right places, but I would love to be able to find an exploration of gradients (for example) in Photoshop and/or css and how different configurations create different visuals. When I open up Photoshop and try it myself, I feel overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite color and position choices I have in front of me - and every attempt comes out looking horrible.