
How can a programmer learn to design websites that don’t suck - vasco
http://vascop.github.com/blog/2012/07/25/how-can-a-programmer-learn-to-design-websites-that-dont-suck.html
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mcmire
I think many programmers don't put an emphasis on design because they think it
doesn't matter. They would rather get something done rather than make it look
good. There is nothing wrong with this approach, but I would say the first
step is to realize that design is important, too.

Many people say, "oh, well, I don't have design skills". I think everyone has
design skills, it's just something you have to work at. And the first step is
to pay attention. I like this line from the article: "I started to look at
things, and I saw what looked right and I tried to memorize it." That's
basically the advice I would give too. Even if you can't design, you can tell
what looks professional from what looks half-baked. The next time you come
across a well-designed site, ask yourself, what makes this so much better than
other sites? Is it the way things are laid out? The choice of font? The
colors?

And once you have a good foundation, look to the details. Consistency in
spacing or alignment, emphasis of elements, etc. Use your instinct - if
something looks bad or unprofessional, fix it.

That's really all there is to it.

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rapind
I think many programmers don't put an emphasis on design because it's really
frikin hard. A really good visual design is like a really good system design.
It takes a lot of thought, experience, and a ton of work to achieve.

With enough experience you'll get significantly better, and like programming
there are some core concepts that will continue to be useful. However, like
programming, it's also changing constantly and requires effort and passion to
keep up with it.

One person can certainly achieve both, but it's definitely not an
afterthought; "oh yeah, I need to do a little design here, shouldn't take too
long".

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wccrawford
I'm a programmer, and I care about it. And I agree that it's really frikin
hard.

I can look at a design and know if it's good or bad. That's easy. Knowing
_why_ and how to fix it is the hard part.

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oleganza
The first thing you'll notice in this article is that each section header is
closer to the previous paragraph than to the next one.

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gb
Also the text is fully justified, which is generally not the way to go on the
web.

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beshrkayali
Maybe out of context, but I really hate justified text.

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Afal
I'm currently reading "Design for Hackers". It's an interesting book and with
some parts it's made me think differently with how I see things.

I know a lot of people will probably dismiss "learning how to design
something" as "don't try it" or "if you're coder then you're not going to get
it" but I kinda disagree. It doesn't hurt for someone from a coding background
to learn about design or to try design themselves, or at least know what makes
a good design. Even knowing just a little bit could be beneficial.

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anthonyb
Oldies but goodies - _The Mac is not a typewriter_ and _Beyond the Mac is not
a typewriter_ by Robyn Williams. It's not Mac-specific, and both have a lot of
examples of how you can improve design.

Fairly eye-opening if you're not used to having a design eye. Even simple
things like alignment and grouping related things can have a big impact.

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DanielRibeiro
Read Bret Victor's amazing post on the subject:
<http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/>

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tomelders
I don't think "Never use absolute positioning" is sound advice.

It has it's place and is a perfectly valid way to position things. And once
you know how Absolute works in relation to containing divs, it's quite simple
to use absolute in a flexible way.

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eropple
IMO, absolute positioning is one of those "don't use until it you know when to
use it, at which point you won't need a guide like this" things. It's good
advice until you have the foundational knowledge to disregard good advice when
appropriate.

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gte910h
Design requires effort and practice just like anything else.

SmashingMagazine, Forrst, and The Non-Designer's Design Book are all great on
teaching fundamentals and talking about things you should keep in mind.

Programmers can learn quite a bit of it just like anything else.

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xyzzyb
Hey! I bought Woody Landing for a project I'm launching soon. It's a nice one.

Another good resource for learning design is the eBook:
<http://bootstrappingdesign.com/>

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nollidge
Man, $39 seems like a terrible price point for that. Forty bucks is a really
good price for a well-designed, full-color hardcover book, not an e-book. $10
and I would've bought it already, but now I'm just queuing it up on Goodreads
to _maybe_ buy at some point in future.

EDIT: wording

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xyzzyb
Seriously? $39 is a great deal for learning something so absolutely
fundamental to working on the web.

A good theme from themeforest will run you $10-$30. If you stick 100% to the
theme you'll look generic (also true with twitter bootstrap), if you deviate
to differentiate but don't know what you are doing you'll still end up with a
mess.

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ringmaster
The recommendation here is essentially "Start with this very common design (a
Bootstrap theme), then add/change {something}, and voila!" which is obviously
missing a significant "something" in terms of instruction. I believe that
there is a way to acquire design intuition of the kind I seek as a programmer
to bridge me into more robust design work, even if it takes time and practice,
but reading another article telling me to use Bootstrap themes isn't it.

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beshrkayali
I think the best way to get into this is to follow web design blogs and
inspiration galleries. From my experience, designing websites becomes a lot
easier after experience. Also, in terms of CSS, LESS and SASS are really
great, everyone should use them.

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jasonkostempski
Just let your interest in design be bigger than your interest in programming
for a little while.

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the1
copy paste some css?

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jQueryIsAwesome
What worked for me was to constantly look at designs in templatemonster and
try to write down the reasons they looked good; then I would try to create one
design using those ideas. Of course, I also read a lot of Photoshop tutorials.

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taligent
1\. Don't Try. 2\. See 1.

Seriously. Some people have artistic skills and sensibilities. Most don't. So
you're much better off spending a small amount of money to get a proper
designer to help you out.

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lusr
It is absurd to generalise like this and tell people not to try without
knowing their background and goals.

While I personally don't see the point in spending my time learning design
skills, this is because my current goal is to move away from doing the work
myself to managing others doing the work.

Assuming your statement that only some people have artistic skills is correct,
and even assuming the proportion is very low for the statement to be
interesting, you're still making an assumption that people with artistic
skills and sensibilities are always aware of them. What does e.g. a 22 year
old "programmer" have to lose trying their hand at a new skill? They may
discover a passion or talent they never realised they had and your advice
would see them miss this opportunity.

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towndrunk
That is one expensive ebook. $39 bucks!?

