You definitely do not need to know programing to get into game design. Making a game requires a wide range of different skill sets, which I think is why we work so well together here at 13AM Games. We've got a very eclectic mix of backgrounds. In the nine of us on the team, only two of us are programmers, and before last year we were the only ones who had ever done anything like this before. Skills that aren't immediately apparent as being useful can turn out to be a lot more essential than many would think.
We've got guys on the team with backgrounds in writing, film, engineering, advertisement, not to mention our artists and programmers. All of them bring to the table their unique experiences, which allows us to have a broader base to work with when designing our games, and a wider skill set to draw from while developing them.