HACKER Q&A
📣 simonmales

Do designers have access to GitHub?


Some companies require designers to have access to source control. Not particularly for pushing code, but for convenience.

For example: Access to the latest build of an application or the URL of a branch specific QA environment. Or are there workflows that require all team members to have GitHub accounts purely for the sake of SSO?

Other companies have zero need for designers to access source control.

Personally, as an engineer, I'm kind of shock when a new designer joins and doesn't even have an GitHub account.


  👤 PragmaticPulp Accepted Answer ✓
Generally, no.

GitHub access shouldn't imply all-or-nothing access to the code. The only reason to give someone GitHub access is if they're working with something stored in Git repositories. Most designers don't store anything in Git, so no need.

> Access to the latest build of an application

Generally, letting non-devs grab random nightly builds isn't as helpful as it sounds. If designers need a new build, they should ask for one from the team and get something that has been minimally vetted.

Handing out nightly builds outside of dev teams leads to a slew of unexpected problems, including a lot of complaints about known issues or a sentiment that the code is "buggy" because people don't understand what a nightly (or per-commit) build means to the dev team.


👤 detaro
... if you realize that not every company needs designers to access source, why is it shocking to you that designers don't have GH accounts? (Totally ignoring the fact that a large percentage of companies doesn't even use Github for their source code)