

Skills a Designer Must Have when Working for a Startup - stylejam
http://blog.stylej.am/5-skills-a-designer-must-have-when-working-in

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alabut
Completely leaves out visual design. Maybe because polish is harder to
encapsulate with a single book or because it's so easy to pick up by cruising
Dribbble for inspiration, but it's still worth mentioning.

Otherwise you get the average startup designer that's more of a developer in
disguise.

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blankenship
"because [visual design is] so easy to pick up by cruising Dribbble for
inspiration"

It is?

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rglover
I think what's being said here is that it's easy to pick up the _ideas_ of
visual design, not the actual skill (I hope). As a budding designer, Dribbble
is definitely helpful in allowing you to see "the bar" and improve how you
approach certain projects. However, it is most definitely NOT easy to "pick up
[visual design] by cruising Dribbble."

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dylanrw
You are both referring to style.

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alabut
Yeah, and?

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dylanrw
Design is a solution to a problem. It doesn't matter what the medium is.
Sometimes you see these solutions on Dribbble but more often than not what you
see are examples of style. They are two separate things.

~~~
alabut
Your definition of design includes style, since style can (and often is) a
solution to a problem as well. Not everything is wireframes and usability, and
this is coming from someone who's first book on the job was Jakob Nielsen's.

Ever read Blink? Or those studies about how people make an unconscious
decision about a website in less than a second?

Style and polish expresses a level of quality (at the very least) and can also
communicate the type of site. Is this a kid-friendly Disney site? Is it a
serious financial tool? Is it a mysterious stealth mode startup?

~~~
dylanrw
“Not everything is design, but design is about everything.” \- Michael Bierut

I think that sums us both up nicely ;)

~~~
alabut
Haha, quoting my own about page against me, love it :)

Yeah, design includes style but isn't _just_ style, that's what we're both
saying I think.

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BradGutting
Ever notice how a lot of start-up websites look pretty similar? Lots of the
same typefaces, same visual approach, same graphic techniques and colors--you
see Helvetica/Arial, the same set of textures, quasi-3D effects, and so on.
The cumulative effect is generic. It says, "we're roughly imitating what
everyone else is doing because everyone else is doing it." Bad message. Good
design won't compensate for flawed business models, but it will maximize the
potential of a strong one.

Independent thought and ingenuity trumps everything on this list, I'm afraid.
The stuff there is price of admission; you're not even a designer without it
in your toolbox.

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rvavruch
I found "Designing Interfaces" disappointing. It is a list of interface
widgets - for example an accordion menu - and some information about how to
use it.

A far better book on usability is "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug.

~~~
DavidChouinard
+1 for Don't Make Me Think. Old, but highly recommended.

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dylanrw
I bet if I made a list like this highlighting what a programmer must have when
working for a startup there'd be some serious hating going on.

While this may be a good list if you want to read up for a month, this does
not cover years of art theory, learning how to choose your battles, developing
a refined sense of taste, pure objectivity, and a myriad of other skills that
are subtly nuanced into almost every project.

I'm sorry, a good designer's "Must Haves" cannot be encapsulated in a list.

~~~
alabut
Everyone has to start somewhere. And unfortunately a lot of design lists end
up making the topic more unapproachable than it has to be, considering there
are some fundamental skills that everyone can build on.

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mikx
The skills are critical for any front-end designer, not just the ones in
startups. Companies that embrace skilled designers as their culture compete
much better than others.

~~~
niekmaas
The word "startup" has almost reached the status of buzzword. "Cloud based
startup" would have been even better..

~~~
ssharp
The use of "startup" along Amazon Associate links with very little value-add
makes this page seem spammy.

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stylejam
Hi, there are no Amazon Associate links: the only one Amazon Associate link I
can think about is with Flanagan's book, and Mr. Flanagan is the associate,
not me. I just thought removing it wouldn't have been polite.

When I could link the book's website, I did it.

~~~
ssharp
My apologies, then. I probably moused-over the one link that did have the
code.

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stylejam
No problem at all, it happens.

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antidaily
I hate this list. Want to be good? Look at sites/apps you admire and learn to
emulate them. Don't read a 300 page book on User Experience or ugh, UX...
unless you're doing for enjoyment.

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rimantas
Sounds like a good plan for cargo-cult web design. A good book on UX (which
stands for the same User Experience, btw) will teach you why you admire
particular web sites.

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antidaily
That has nothing to do with producing a good design, fast - which is the #1
qualification I'm looking for in a designer at a startup.

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nonrecursive
You really don't care if someone has a conceptual understanding of UI/UX? I
guess that's fine if you're not doing anything unique. But if you are, how is
your designer going to be able to think through the unique design problems
posed by your product?

I mean - take Mint, which has been widely praised for its design. Would a
designer have been able to produce it by cobbling together half-understood
components from other sites?

I'd really like to hear more about why you don't think a designer needs to be
able to understand what design is. I'm curious about how you think he'd even
be able to successfully emulate other sites if he doesn't understand what to
emulate and why.

~~~
antidaily
Fair points.

I just don't think _studying_ these concepts makes you better. Designing makes
you better. Practice and good feedback. To me, UI and UX can read like
buzzwords on a resume. I'm not saying they're not important components. I'm
just disagreeing with how one should learn them. Perhaps I could have been
more clear in my original comment.

