

Ask HN: How did you learn design? What resources exist to help one learn? - jknightco

I'm currently a developer with the ability to put together organized wireframes, but I lack that certain something necessary to put together complete, quality designs. I've seen plenty of "Learn to Code" type posts, and I'm interested in what sort of resources exist regarding learning proper design.
======
vitovito
I came to design from engineering via usability. Usability gives you metrics
you can qualify your UIs with, just like you have for your code. Time on task
is like execution speed for people. Information efficiency is like lint
checking for content.

I started with Jef Raskin's _The Humane Interface_. Chapters 1-4 cover the
essentials about testing and usability and efficiency, and then Chapter 6 from
6.3 on, and you can skip the rest.

Then, assuming you understand semantic HTML, you can take efficiency and
semantic HTML and understand information architecture and 2D content layout.
Robin Williams' _The Non-Designer's Design Book_ and Jan V. White's _Editing
by Design_ can teach you effective and attractive positioning of content on a
page or on a screen. The principles are all the same.

From layout you can get into visual design through things like dashboards
(Stephen Few's _Information Dashboard Design_) or other "practical" subjects
without ever getting into becoming an actual artist.

If you want to get more into visual design, I've given out a few copies of
David Kadavy's _Design for Hackers_, and it's supposed to be good, but I
haven't read it. The best way is really to take some introductory visual
design and art classes. Check your local community college.

If you want to get more into user experience or interaction design, Dan
Saffer's _Designing for Interaction_ is often cited as a good overview of the
practice of interaction design, but I haven't read it, either.

~~~
jknightco
Thanks for the book suggestions, I grabbed most of them on Amazon!

------
dzink
There are a bunch of design and typography rules out there, such as Kadavy's
book. One of the harder lessons to learn is that the most valuable thing to
develop is your taste... and then your relentless pursuit of creating great
work based on it. The better your taste, the more frustrated you will get
until your skills meet it. I found this after a few years of torture:

[http://www.mcwade.com/DesignTalk/2011/04/nobody-tells-
this-t...](http://www.mcwade.com/DesignTalk/2011/04/nobody-tells-this-to-
beginners/)

PG has a great article on the subject as well:
<http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html>

~~~
jknightco
I completely agree with you, and I think I've done a lot to develop my taste.
I get extremely frustrated when I sit down to design things, because nothing
ever comes out how I was hoping it to. Things don't line up quite right,
colors aren't perfect, etc.

Thanks for the tips!

------
jmilinion
For me, I find it's actually a matter of learning more about myself and why I
do what I do. I'm no great designer but I was a technically minded person who
thought I could never design anything nice. That was until I tried to examine
why I do what I do.

I keep asking myself "Why did I just do that?" and do whatever it takes to
find out that why.

------
Jacob4u2
I was the technical reviewer on a recent book called "Design for Software".
It's a good introduction to design with a focus on an engineering audience.

More info at <http://www.design4software.com/>

~~~
eklimcz
I'm the author of Design for Software. Chapter 5 in the book is dedicated to
creating proper wireframes. I also have some freebies on design4software.com
that might help. cheers!

~~~
jknightco
Bought your book! Looking forward to going through it.

------
MichaelOtte
I think getting a mentor can be very helpful. A friend learned by designing a
perspective of skewmorphic design (imitating real things).

------
kohanz
<http://hackdesign.org/>

