

Ask HN: How can a seasoned developer approach design and be good enough? - umut

Good enough to prototype his ideas without needing someone else to do the design work or spending ages for simple tasks...<p>Do you have any recipes for success in this department?
======
dpiers
I asked myself the same question around 6 months ago, so I talked to the most
talented designer I know and asked him for a list of the most influential
books he had read whilst developing his skills.

Here is the list, in the order he recommended reading them:

Creative Process: [http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-
Others/dp/140...](http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-
Others/dp/1400064287)

Design Thinking: [http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Rand-A-
Designer%60s-Art/dp/030008...](http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Rand-A-
Designer%60s-Art/dp/0300082827/)

Typography: [http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-Designers-Critical-
Stude...](http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-Designers-Critical-
Students/dp/1568984480/)

Spatial Relationships - Grids: [http://www.amazon.com/Making-Breaking-Grid-
Graphic-Workshop/...](http://www.amazon.com/Making-Breaking-Grid-Graphic-
Workshop/dp/1592531253/)

Reduction: <http://www.amazon.com/Symbol-Steven-Bateman/dp/1856697274/>

Color Theory: <http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Color-Subjective->
Experience/dp/0471289280/

Branding 101: [http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Brand-Identity-Essential-
Bra...](http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Brand-Identity-Essential-
Branding/dp/0470401427/)

I've been making my way through the list, and it is amazing how much my
approach to design has changed. Before I was winging it and was never really
sure if I was making something that would look good, but now I feel like I
have a solid foundation to build on.

------
Sargis
First of all, stay away from Bootstrap. Learn the basics first then get
yourself familiar with Photoshop. You can learn the basics by reading books
like "The non-designer's design book", "Design Basics" or something similar.

Then go pick out well designed websites and try to recreate it with Photoshop.
You can use Dribbble for this. Try to pay attention to every pixel and
recreate it exactly as you see it, or it'll most likely end up ugly. After a
while you can try to add your own stuff onto it.

After doing this for some time, you'll have learned how to do simple stuff
with Photoshop, you'll have learned what kind of layouts each type of website
uses and you'll be able to use these layouts for your own projects. You'll
learn how to effectively apply subtle effects and much more.

Basically, the fastest way to become good at design is to copy other people's
design.

Also, remember that anything you design at first will probably look ugly, but
you need to keep tweaking it until you find something that looks good.

~~~
vorador
Actually, I found easier to learn designing directly in the browser, instead
of using photoshop. After all, I wanted to learn design, not photoshop.

And as a bonus, you'll get a headstart when you'll want to learn responsive
design.

~~~
dotborg
This way your designing process is limited to your HTML/CSS skills, while the
point of being being good designer is to have no limits(except imagination)

------
octix
For prototyping or even some beta products any popular css/js framework would
do. You should've heard about bootstrap.io, just make sure at the end when you
go public, customize it a bit.. so it won;t look like other dozens of
websites.

~~~
kellros
I second this motion. Bootstrap is a great place to start. There are a couple
of other things such as background images, fonts, balance, icons (ex.
FontAwesome) and some other minor changes you can make to make your website
look even better.

There was a great post on HN a couple of weeks ago, unfortunately I've lost
said link - just google for 'x ways to make your website look better'.

~~~
codegeek
"unfortunately I've lost said link "

If you upvoted the story, it should be in your saved stories link.

------
csixty4
I can only tell you what worked for me. Get a copy of The Non-Designer's
Design Book ([http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-
Willia...](http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-
Williams/dp/0321193857)) to learn the basics. Then practice, practice,
practice. Design something, then try to figure out what you don't like about
it. Use the concepts from the book to describe how it falls short. Throw it
away and try again with something else. Eventually it'll just start coming
naturally, much like programming did once upon a time.

~~~
umut
a good book advice plus a nice smile on my face... thanks!

