

Ask HN: How do I develop an appreciation for good design? - DanBC

I am not asking "How do I become a designer?", nor "How do I do bits and pieces of design work?"  but more about how I develop skills - "How do I know something is good design when I see it?  What should I be looking out for?  What makes a design good or bad?"<p>I'd really like recommendations for books or websites or whatnot, whether those are examples of good design (or poor design) or whether they're about the process.<p>For example: I can understand a designer buying many sets of cutlery to find the perfect set.  What I can't quite get is how they pick one set over another apart from just "It feels great in the hand, is made from suitable materials, and doesn't cut my mouth when I eat".
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professorTuring
It's easier than it seems. Not all people have good taste for classic music,
books, or anything...

How can you improve your tastes o knowledge in anything? Just observing,
consuming and reading. I spent some minutes a day watching presentations,
infographics and reading articles about design. I also take a deeper look when
I end up to a blog which design I like.

Sometimes you'll learn something about colors and how they match, another day
you will discover the angled stripes people use in backgrounds, or you will
find out details in (sans) serif typography... Within this work you will also
discover your own taste.

Eventually you will find out that you can appreciate how many of all learned
topics have been taken in consideration when designing something...

Long story short, just reading and observing.

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brudgers
How do you recognize good design in a fork? Devote time to comparing forks.

However, it's not as certain forkers wish it was. A $200 fork may have all
sorts of wonderful properties missing from a utensil which costs $0.02 and
still be a worse design.

What makes a design good or bad is how it meets someone's needs. Silk toilet
paper probably feels wonderful but it will clog the septic system - or require
cleaning for reuse.

