

Ask HN: Developers to Designers - uptownhr

There&#x27;s many intro tutorial to becoming a developer on the web that I&#x27;ve ran into. Any many designers eventually take on development work, even if it&#x27;s just html&#x2F;css. I would love some pointers for developers that wanted to learn how to design. Tips, resources, etc.. anything is welcome.
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dylanrw
The first step (which many don't realize oddly enough) is that design is
merely thoughtful solution to a problem. You're already a designer if you're a
competent engineer.

The next step is identifying the tools you wish to solve problems with (of
which there are several when people think ‘Designer’):

\- Graphic/Visual Design: Key concepts to learn are the Layout Principles, Art
Principles (Shape/Color/Contrast/Proportion), The Gestalt Principles
(Continuation, Proximity, Similarity), Color theory. All of these aid a
viewer/customer/user in navigation or action. DO NOT CONFUSE WITH GRAPHIC ART.

\- Interaction Design: Key concepts are Goal-oriented design, personas, basic
cognition etc. All of this can help you design a better transaction between a
user and your project, or make a more learnable system through action. This is
a pretty broad field with deep reaching repercussions if used effectively.

\- User Experience Design: Very much related to the prior subjects and relies
on them heavily, focuses more on the final results of the transaction and less
on it’s construction/execution. Ultimately should satisfy the question, “Was
the experience positive, and will they return?”

Another very important thing to realize is that each of these areas have
principles, systems, tools, and patterns much like the things an engineer may
already know. This is not a discipline of fluff and touchy-feely ‘creativity’
where answers are plucked from the ether or some magic hat. I feel that making
that clear when I’m teaching someone new to the discipline makes the entire
thing less daunting since it’s a rational process and not a talent based
pursuit…

I hope this helps!

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jawerty
HackDesign ([https://hackdesign.org/](https://hackdesign.org/)) is an awesome
resource for the developer to designer transition. They have hacker-friendly
tutorials by professional designers.

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lsiunsuex
[http://themeforest.net/](http://themeforest.net/) is my favorite. As a
developer, I'll find a template I like for < $25 and use it as a base. I'm a
big fan of twitter bootstrap templates but there are a lot others.

To me, it's the same as anything else. Practice, Practice, Practice. I've been
doing this for 2 years now and I've started to develop my own designs without
needing a template.

Even just looking through what designers are doing is a great source of
inspiration.

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OafTobark
See: [https://medium.com/what-i-learned-
today/bad8cdb67068](https://medium.com/what-i-learned-today/bad8cdb67068)

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uptownhr
thanks for all the replies.

