
How to self-educate if you lack a formal design education - cwan
http://www.netmagazine.com/opinions/self-educate-survive
======
davidw
The "Non Designer's Design Book" is pretty good. It was suggested to me on
this forum some time ago, and I got a lot out of it, even though it's still a
struggle to really internalize it

[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321534042/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=de...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321534042/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=dedasys-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0321534042&adid=1NE6ZVDDSQYYGZSDEW67&);

(And, yes, I have an affiliate link there. That's why I got a high karma score
here, so I could start raking in the millions with affiliate links to
books...)

~~~
revorad
You're clearly not greedy enough. Here's the UK link with _my_ affiliate ID
:-P :

Papaerback - [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-
Will...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-
Williams/dp/0321534042/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&tag=laughcompu-21&qid=1315151461&sr=8-1)

Kindle - [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Non-Designers-Design-Book-3rd-
ebook/...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Non-Designers-Design-Book-3rd-
ebook/dp/B00125MJYM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&tag=laughcompu-21&qid=1315151461&sr=8-4)

~~~
davidw
+1

I do not fathom the people who have been downvoting my comment. By all means,
if you find someone on this site who submits nothing but link spam, downvote
and flag them. Otherwise, why get your knickers in a knot about me getting a
pittance for recommending a book I happened to like?

~~~
revorad
I have learnt to ignore HN downvotes on my comments, and am now learning to
also ignore upvotes. Thinking about internet karma is not worth anyone's time,
especially because it robs you of your sense of humour.

~~~
lobo_tuerto
I agree wholeheartedly with your last sentence.

After stoping to care for downvotes and upvotes, I started to see my karma as
a _wallet_, with it I could _spend_ points in irrelevant comments, bad jokes,
etc., but not carelessly, just enough to have a good laugh without compromise
or worry. Positive points in my _wallet_ means I'm still contributing
positively to this community, just that.

------
angusdavis
That article misses the bulk of what good design is actually about. To quote
Steve Jobs:

"Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People
think it's this veneer -- that the designers are handed this box and told,
'Make it look good!' That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it
looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

If you want to learn about design, before reading books about colors, fonts,
grid layouts or how to make an inner glow in Photoshop, you should start by
reading something like Don Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things" to gain an
appreciation for how things work, and why. Then worry about making them look
good.

~~~
DavidChouinard
I would also add Don't Make Me Think (by Steve Krug) to that list.

~~~
revorad
I recently read that book and found bits of it useful, but overall quite
overrated, considering it's recommended every time UI/UX is discussed. Does
anyone else feel this way?

~~~
davty
I agree completely. In general it has good value, but to me it's in no way
near being a bible, which some people ascribe it to.

------
toumhi
I think most of HN users who fit that description (wanting to self-educate if
you lack a formal design education) are programmers.

To these i say: learning design is good and valuable, but if you want to learn
design because you want your next websites or web apps to look good, IMHO
you'll be better off outsourcing to a designer who spent years studying these
things (you won't become a great designer overnight). For a couple hundred
dollars you can find somebody (good) on odesk to design a couple pages that
would look much better than a starting designer could do.

------
michaelpinto
What so many programmers just don't get is that design isn't a programming
language that you can learn in a few weekends in your spare time. When you got
to art school you sit in a room with over a dozen other artists so you see
every potential solution to a problem. When you go to art school you study
with a wide range of teachers who have every sort of professional experience
(which is different than reading a book or looking at a website).

I've been doing design for interactive media for over twenty years and I can
tell you that most self educated "web designers" are really just decorators
who know HTML. And not that there's anything wrong with that but there's a
huge difference between a decorator and someone who thinks like architect when
you need one. Simply put: Despite our love of the idea of the brilliant actor
or rock star who becomes famous overnight most of us really do need an
education.

------
sriramk
I've been taking a different approach. I started poring over books on people
like Dieter Rams, reading about other design oriented fields like
fashion,advertising (Ogilvy's book is amazing) architecture, etc. It's been
hugely helpful and just fun in it's own right.

~~~
dirtyaura
Which one of Ogilvy's books you meant (or recommend): Confessions of an
Advertising Man (2004) or Ogilvy on Advertising (1985)?

~~~
jeremydavid
"Ogilvy on Advertising" is his most famous book

~~~
dirtyaura
Thanks, that was what I ordered. And it seems Confessions is actually from
60s, just the print sold in Amazon was from 2004.

~~~
justincormack
Confessions is a good read, suspect it covers a lot of the same ground, but
with autobiography added, although havent read the other. Good writing about
advertising is interesting, though there is not much of it.

------
tedkimble
A question to web-designers: What are the metrics with which you test your
design experimentations?

Does it pass the test if it aligns to a grid, contains a pleasant color
palette, has enough whitespace, hierarchy, and contrast? Or is there something
more fundamental you strive for?

I think a formal design education would be much less concerned with the
former, and more concerned with the latter -- what are your most fundamental
first principles as a person, and how can you instill those into your design
and/or design process.

I want to see more articles about that.

~~~
duopixel
You are right, there is something more fundamental to strive for: purpose.

Alignment, whitespace, hierarchy and contrast are elements of visual syntax.
You internalize the rules so much that when you're designing you're not
thinking about it; you are thinking about what you are trying to achieve.

Say you need to design a sign-up page for a newsletter, you need to:

1\. Tell users what the newsletter is about

2\. Say how often it's published

3\. Make them feel comfortable giving out their e-mail

4\. Give some demonstration of value

As you are designing, you are thinking about what is the best way to
accomplish each of these goals in a visual manner. You often don't even think
where to align stuff, it just falls into place because you _know_ where it's
supposed to be.

If I were to make a parallel to code, it would be clearly internalizing the
syntax of the language. You no longer think about where to indent your code,
or of a comparison operator in javascript is == instead of =, you have
achieved enough fluency to stop thinking about how to write code and actually
achieving something.

___

Since everybody is plugging their own stuff, I wrote on the subject of
programming and design here: <http://method.ac/blog/design/programmers-
designers.html>

------
kavehgolabi
As I have programmers and designers that work for me I see the programmers
often butcher the work of designers when taking the mocksups to html/css. A
simple rule seems to be that things should not stick out. There should be
uniformity through out the site with fonts or spacing that are consistent.
This isnt advice to make a great design but rather advice for how to improve a
crappy one for the non designer. Another tip for those forced to design
without the appropriate skillset is to search the web and find a professional
site that has a good design and copy it. Yes I said copy it. Thats what we did
with the original cramster.com (years ago) by getting inspiration for the page
from amazon.com. You wont win any design awards but it will help you get
something acceptable up while you look for professional help.

------
mannicken
I think the fundamental problem is that designers use right brains to come up
with solution: the brain that's involved in processing of emotions, shapes,
"a-ha" moments, and seeing the whole picture.

Programming, on the other hand, seems to be a fairly analytical and logical
activity that involves verbalizing logic in a programming language.

I suggest starting out with "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain"
because if you try to approach design as you would approach programming it
will look like a stick figure.

------
telemachos
The book he recommends for grids[1] isn't available yet (and has no release
date).

As an alternative perhaps Khoi Vinh's _Ordering Disorder_ [2].

[1] [http://www.fivesimplesteps.com/products/a-practical-guide-
to...](http://www.fivesimplesteps.com/products/a-practical-guide-to-designing-
grid-systems-for-the-web)

[2] <http://www.subtraction.com/2010/11/05/i-wrote-a-book>

------
floris
The most important thing when learning design is to learn and use the right
process. Except for the very abstract inspiration part, everything listed here
would all fit in the last 50% of my process as an 'educated designer'. I
believe there's much more low hanging fruit in the first 50%. It's hard to
give concrete examples for this though because it's all very dependent on the
kind of product you aim to design.

------
jcoder
Fine article, but if the goal is legitimacy in the design community, make sure
not to misuse terms. Kuler and colorlovers.com are great resources but they
probably won't teach you anything about color _theory_. Also, white balance
does not mean what the author thinks it means.

------
zitterbewegung
I have been working with a designer to design his website and based upon his
feedback and my constant redesign I'm developing a design aesthetic which is
very helpful. I suppose I am learning design by doing.

~~~
andrewreedy
This is the same way I started designing! My dad would have me design ads for
his businesses growing up and I was horrible at first, but as I kept designing
the skills started to come. Keep it up :)

Also, Check out Smashing Magazine, <http://www.smashingmagazine.com/> it is a
great resource for design! and if you get more into web app design 37 signals
has an awesome blog called Signal vs Noise. Check it out!

------
kenjackson
I feel like I get all the theory. I can't sit down in Illustrator and make it
happen. I'd really like to get a good book or course that can help me actually
use the tools to design great sites.

~~~
rapind
<http://www.lynda.com/Design-training-tutorials/40-0.html>

Plenty of free courses out there as well of course. I personally prefer paying
for most self-learning stuff since I'll be investing so much time into it.

------
saturnisbig
many opinions here is important to me, and i have been thinking some of the
problem. i like this.

