

Learn web design? - mhlg

I&#x27;ve been a professional career for a couple of years now, doing lot on my side projects. I feel very proficient in terms of languages and frameworks, but there&#x27;s one thing I can&#x27;t really grasp. Web design, and I don&#x27;t mean technicalities like JS&#x2F;HTML&#x2F;CSS. Whenever I do an application with a we frontend, no matter how interesting it is in terms of the features, it always looks like shit.<p>So, HN reader, do you have any resources on learning how to design (and implement?) a web page that would not be hideous?
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ralmeida
Depending on how much you are looking to invest, take a look at some design
courses and books online. A good portion of them are targeted to developers
who want to get better at design, as it seems to be your case, not only people
looking at design as a career choice.

Some links to check out:

Hack Design - hackdesign.org (free)

Design and Aesthetics course on Treehouse - teamtreehouse.com (25 USD / month)

Design Lab's Design 101 - trydesignlab.com/web-design-course (299 USD, six
weeks. You work through the couse with a professional designer from mostly
well-known Valley companies and startups, who you send assignments to and they
give you feedback. Check out their profiles pages of students, so you can see
the feedback received by other students, it's a good way to learn. I'm looking
to try it in the near future).

Nathan Barry's books on design - nathanbarry.com/books (39 - 249 USD,
depending on if you want the videos and supporting materials too).

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shogun21
I like checking out
[http://www.smashingmagazine.com/](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/), as well
as their ebooks.

The best way to learn design is looking at existing designs and what works
about them or what doesn't work.
[http://www.awwwards.com/websites/clean/](http://www.awwwards.com/websites/clean/)

Design is an iterative process. Do you rough out ideas on paper before
starting to build them? Paper prototyping in the beginning can save hours/days
of work down the line.

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cskakun
Well here's a short story of mine going from a horrible designer to getting
featured on top blogs - [http://kickassinwebdesign.com/blog/featured-on-
mashable/](http://kickassinwebdesign.com/blog/featured-on-mashable/)

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chpp
For business purposes, chopping up templates gets the job done. I personally
have accepted the fact I do not have the "aesthetic eye" for design.

If I wanted to get that "eye" I guess I would look at successful websites,
learn about design and what catches/pleases readers. How readers see websites
in general and what is appealing, then just try things.

I cant recommend taking my advice but that's what I would do if I wanted to
increase my design knowledge.

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talles
I bet there are books on the subject, but I'm not a designer myself.

Codeschool has a Fundamentals of design course, but I didn't take the course
myself. But judging by the quality of their other content it's probably good
material: [https://www.codeschool.com/courses/fundamentals-of-
design](https://www.codeschool.com/courses/fundamentals-of-design)

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systemtrigger
To build a web site that looks perfect to you, find a web site that you think
looks perfect and inspect its source.

