

Ask news YC: Your best sources to learn about design & usability - sharpshoot

Hey, what are the best blogs/websites you read to learn more about good design and usability? I'm sure this could help a few of us here.
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e1ven
Here are a few links from my bookmark folder on the subject, in no particular
order:

How to use contrast to your advantage- [http://www.gomediazine.com/design-
tip/rule-three-contrast-co...](http://www.gomediazine.com/design-tip/rule-
three-contrast-contrast-contrast/)

Use colors that have varying intensities, not just differnet colors. Focus on
how it looks in greyscale [http://www.gomediazine.com/design-tip/becoming-a-
master-desi...](http://www.gomediazine.com/design-tip/becoming-a-master-
designer-rule-two-limit-your-colors/)

Visualizing Fitt's Law <http://particletree.com/features/visualizing-fittss-
law/>

Software Has personality.
[http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2007/09/lightrooms_g...](http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2007/09/lightrooms_goals_1.html)

Copy sites you like, such as: <http://orderedlist.com/articles/single-line-
css#comments> or <http://www.joyent.com/>

How to make your designs suck less: [http://jimwhimpey.com/blog/2007/simple-
ways-to-help-your-des...](http://jimwhimpey.com/blog/2007/simple-ways-to-help-
your-design-suck-less-1/)

Load faster, by doing a low-res version first. <http://www.wait-
till-i.com/index.php?p=464>

How to do sound design
[http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/why_is_that_thing_beeping...](http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/why_is_that_thing_beeping_a_sound_design_primer)

More on Sound Design [http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2007/03/22/how-to-make-
user-...](http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2007/03/22/how-to-make-user-
interfaces-musical.html)

Use smart color pickers <http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=6434>

Whitespace Matters! <http://alistapart.com/articles/whitespace>

You can make a UI _feel_ responsive, by minimizing the number of clicks
<http://tantek.com/log/2007/02.html#d19t1813>

Write Production UIs, never use placeholders [http://a-simian-
mind.blogspot.com/2007/03/user-interface-is-...](http://a-simian-
mind.blogspot.com/2007/03/user-interface-is-as-important-as-code.html)

A gradient Tutorial <http://9rules.com/blog/2006/08/a-gradient-tutorial/>

Aza's tips [http://ajaxian.com/archives/death-of-the-desktop-by-aza-
rask...](http://ajaxian.com/archives/death-of-the-desktop-by-aza-raskin)

~~~
jsackmann
Wow. Thank you.

(An up-mod didn't seem quite sufficient.)

~~~
e1ven
Always glad to help. The key thing is to read blogs of people who are better
Usability than I (and possible you) ;)

If you read other people's blogs, they find the interesting stuff for you.

<http://www.37signals.com/svn/> <http://daringfireball.net>
<http://www.smashingmagazine.com/>

When you start to see that they keep linking to a site, and saying there's a
good article there, then start reading that site too ;)

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german
Kathy Sierra's, Creating Passionate Users. <http://headrush.typepad.com>

There you can find a lot of great posts about user experience.

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brlewis
Jakob Nielsen is all about usability:

<http://useit.com/>

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Nate
<http://www.smashingmagazine.com/>

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juanpablo
<http://www.alistapart.com/topics/design/>

<http://www.baekdal.com/articles/>

The book "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug is a classic.

~~~
nextmoveone
[http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-
Usability/dp/032134...](http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-
Usability/dp/0321344758)

Yup...I liked "Don't Make Me Think".

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lkozma
Edward Tufte's forum:

[http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-new-
answers?topic_...](http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-new-
answers?topic_id=1&topic=Ask+E%2eT%2e)

~~~
as
It all begins with Tufte.

[http://www.amazon.com/Envisioning-Information-Edward-R-
Tufte...](http://www.amazon.com/Envisioning-Information-Edward-R-
Tufte/dp/0961392118/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-9609958-1943036?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192213725&sr=8-3)

[http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-
Informatio...](http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-
Information-2nd/dp/0961392142/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-9609958-1943036?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192213725&sr=8-1)

~~~
farnetto
Atwood blogs on Tufte with links cheatsheet "An Education for Analytical
Design" <http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000739.html>

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aantix
Joel's book is a great introduction and a must read if you haven't taken a
look before.
[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000057....](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000057.html)

Jakob Neilson's site is a treasure trove of usability information.
<http://www.useit.com/>

37 Signals will often write blog posts outlining particular design decisions
in their products. <http://www.37signals.com/svn/>

For a more specific topic, I have been researching typography. Something
really simple to do (for which I am in the process of doing); get your text
baselines to line up ("baseline rhythm"). It will make your site easier to
read. Here's some great writeups on the subject.

[http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/04/30/typography-
baselin...](http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/04/30/typography-baseline-
rhythm-deciphered/) <http://nubyonrails.com/articles/get-rhythm-in-your-
baseline>

And here's an online tool that will generate a CSS file with all the
appropriate measurements: <http://topfunky.com/baseline-rhythm-calculator/>

------
blader
Some blogs from my Google Reader:

Functioning Form: <http://www.lukew.com/ff/>

flow|state: <http://miksovsky.blogs.com>

Bokardo (social design): <http://bokardo.com>

WeBreakStuff: <http://blog.webreakstuff.com/>

37signals: <http://37signals.com/svn>

ParticleTree: <http://particletree.com/>

Jensen Harris (Office 2K7): <http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/>

Usability in the News: [http://www.usernomics.com/news/user-interface-design-
news.ht...](http://www.usernomics.com/news/user-interface-design-news.html)

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masherrill
I constantly check <http://www.styleboost.com> It's not really about usability
but more like a barometer of what's considered good design these days. If I
ever need design inspiration this is where I trek to first.

~~~
asdflkj
"good design these days."

Isn't good design supposed to be timeless, or something like that? Maybe the
word you're looking for is fashion.

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reidman
I'll toss another hat in Tufte's ring. His stuff can be pretty meta, but once
the concepts are in your head, you start looking at design much differently.

If I hadn't read 'The Quantitative Display of Visual Information' I think that
my design work would be much more cluttered and confusing. Reading the book
actually made me want to be a better designer -- I knew, instinctively and
through his demonstrations, that my work was definitely not up to par. Any
book that can cut through the dense pretenses of a cocky young designer
deserves some respect ;D

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xg
Fantastic Photoshop tutorials that focus on "polish" and a lot of design
elements that are currently in vogue.

[http://psdtuts.com/designing-tutorials/elements-of-great-
web...](http://psdtuts.com/designing-tutorials/elements-of-great-web-design-
the-polish/)

[http://psdtuts.com/interface-tutorials/making-a-message-
stri...](http://psdtuts.com/interface-tutorials/making-a-message-strip-in-
photoshop/)

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pistoriusp
Sometimes it's also helpful to experiencing good usability. So I suggest using
OS X, after awhile I found myself looking at software in a different way.

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liquidcool
I found this article on web application form design to be a good primer:

<http://www.lukew.com/resources/articles/web_forms.html>

It's on the Functioning Form blog for interaction designers:

<http://www.lukew.com/ff/>

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jkush
This is a must read:

The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper

[http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum-
Products/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum-
Products/dp/0672326140/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-0136500-8317427?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192215579&sr=8-1)

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naivehs
This is a great thread, will be really interesting to go through all these
links.

Here is another good one, the domain is pretty self explanatory

<http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/current-style.cfm>

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greendestiny
I'm a big fan of information-architects.jp this article on web design
typography is great: [http://www.informationarchitects.jp/the-web-is-all-
about-typ...](http://www.informationarchitects.jp/the-web-is-all-about-
typography-period)

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rwebb
We're looking for good examples of sticky signup processes. Asking users for
the 'fun' info and sneaking in the necessary nuts, blots, and email
confirmation later seems like a good way to go. Thoughts? Examples?

~~~
rwebb
some good ones:

<http://pageflakes.com>

<http://widgetbox.com>

<https://jobs.37signals.com/jobs/new>

<http://netvibes.com>

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pius
I'd highly recommend <http://designinginterfaces.com>, the companion site to
Jenifer Tidwell's eponymous O'Reilly book.

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luccastera
another good one: [http://slash7.com/articles/2006/12/30/6-things-you-need-
to-k...](http://slash7.com/articles/2006/12/30/6-things-you-need-to-know-
about-color)

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kashif
A List apart - www.alistapart.com

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dawie
Users. Get an good analytics tools and watch what your users do.

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edw519
[http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/105-4473380-9298029?ini...](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/105-4473380-9298029?initialSearch=1&url=search-
alias%3Daps&field-keywords=%22edward+r.+tufte%22)

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mroman
I find

<http://www.usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines.html>

to be a worthwhile resource, particularly owing to its being based on
research.

