[sebmak]

I can't speak too much about the freelance market, but i can say as someone who is currently trying to hire a UI/UX designer ;) (https://www.pairin.com/careers/) One thing i am always looking for in a designer, especially UI, is their ability to prototype a complicated idea.

Since so much more of "Great" design no days involves things like motion and animation, it is great to see a designer who can mock something up with some motion. And that can be with either code or with some sort of animation software. It is really hard for most people to get a sense for motion without seeing the motion.

There should never be a need for a designer to be as efficient as a front-end developer when coding, or you should just hire a front-end developer.

On the note of: > data analysis for research or MVP building Being able to take complex data and show it in a meaningful and understandable way, is a much more valuable skill (in my opinion) for a UI/UX designer to have than the ability to write some code.