People have posted a lot of resources here, but are there any resources that talk about how to use specific tools to create webpage designs, rather than just concepts behind designs? I'm not sure which tools I should even use to go about creating a design (other than hand coding HTML and CSS)
Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
21–30 of 64 posts
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#22I steal heavily from some of the best designers/design shops out there.
Here's some of my favs (look through the portfolios)
http://www.odopod.com http://bigspaceship.com http://barbariangroup.com/ http://codeandtheory.com http://akqa.com http://rga.com
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#23Check out Joel Spolsky's UI Interface design. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/fog0000000249.html
and as well as mrshoe, I love The design of everyday things.
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#24What I learned from a Human-Computer Interaction class in college
- Always think of the user. All tradeoffs should be made in favor of the user
- Don't expect users to read anything; they're busy
- Make it as simple as possible, but no simpler. Don't dumb it down, just don't complicate it
- For each page/window, know exactly what the user wants to do there.
- Make things clear, easy to see, and easy to learn
- Have an Undo command, for Christ's sakes
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#25My favorite UX books: The Design of Everyday Things ( http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/d... ) The Humane Interface ( http://www.amazon.com/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designing-... ) Contextual Design ( http://www.amazon.com/Contextual-Design-Customer-Centered-In... )
That last one is more about systems analysis than user experience.
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#26I like the books "Don't make me think" and "Designing the obvious" for some basic web UX knowledge. They are short and to the point.
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#27Many YC startups have stunning design e.g. heroku, wufoo. When you come across a beautiful site, open it in Firebug to see how it was done.
Stunning design doesn't really come from having "beautiful" html code so much I feel. People who really get design are the ones who think about how a product is going to be used, who is using it, and in what context. If you are talking strictly visual design, then the CSS/HTML markup is going to be even less relevant. For that I would go to CSS sites and galleries and derive inspiration from there.
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#28I basically sent the same question in an e-mail to Amy Hoy last night. She recommended these two books, "The Universal Principles of Design (have to get a used copy) and About Face 3 for interaction design."
Why a used copy of ”Universal Principles”? It’s available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Principles-Design-William-Li...
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#29I have to say of all 37Signalers, I enjoy listening to Ryan Singer the most. He seems to have a genuine interest in teaching and not in a "controversial for the sake of marketing" kind of way. He has a bunch of videos on Vimeo.
He talks more about user experience and interaction, not graphic design, that as someone else mentioned, you can find tutorials on the tuts plus network.
Re: Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design
#30Ben Fry's Dissertation is awesome, very easy to read and FREE! Ben is the creator of the Processing language (which is awesome by itself)