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NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers

nodesign.dev

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Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers

#111

Post by sizzle »

rsweeney21 wrote: post #109

I went from software engineer to founder. As part of that journey I had to learn something about design since my co-founder didn't have that skill or interest. My advice for founders: copy. Find a design you like, brand colors you like, and just copy it exactly. Colors, shadows, spacing, layout. As long as it is an established brand/company, the UX will be good enough that it won't harm your startup. And that's all y…

When you can afford it, I would hire a UX designer with a strong portfolio of usable/accessible design projects that knows how to interpret behavioral analytics into improving the UX over time as the company adds new features.

If you can spend money on marketing, you cannot afford to not spend money on ensuring the UX is working for your users and to get insight into if poor design is the reason behind not performing as expected for your bottom line.

Pro-tip: UX is NOT UI (there are a lot of off the shelf design systems that make designing UI trivial e.g. Salesforce lightning design system, material design, etc. - hire someone who is a UX design generalist until you can afford specialists - UX designers/researchers).

Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers

#112

Post by denster »

gdubs wrote: post #49

If I could give one piece of advice for technical developers it’s that design isn’t all about the way it looks, it’s about the way it works. To expand on that, it’s how the pieces fit together within your set of constraints. There’s a LOT in common with what makes code beautiful or not. You get to the essential; nothing more, nothing less. This doesn’t mean “minimalist” , per se — just be wary of ornamentation that d…

What's a "non-artistic developer"?

I think:

1) Design is like a muscle, you can always develop it

2) Digital experiences [1] are all around us! And they play a more pivotal role in our lives as time goes on.

So, hit the gym (practice) & with time everyone can improve.

[1] As the https://mintdata.com founder here, I'm highly biased -- I'm not a designer but certainly aspire to improve along this dimension.

Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers

#113

Post by yutopia »

meristem wrote: post #105
yutopia wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the overall point that design is about more than looks, but my impression is that design as practiced by the IDEO / Stanford d.school / design thinking crowd is a quite different beast from what’s being taught inside most architecture schools. The former tries to distill design into a largely linear, repeatable process (that can be peddled by consultants, if I’m being a bit cynical), the latter would cha…

Consultant here! Design is taught as a holistic process. I have not seen "largely linear" in a decade. It is complex, iterative and grounded in research. At least that is my experience and how I have seen it taught. YMMV.

Huh I admit my impressions may not reflect the current state of things.

Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers

#114

Post by galfarragem »

clairity wrote: post #62
gdubs wrote: post #49

If I could give one piece of advice for technical developers it’s that design isn’t all about the way it looks, it’s about the way it works. To expand on that, it’s how the pieces fit together within your set of constraints. There’s a LOT in common with what makes code beautiful or not. You get to the essential; nothing more, nothing less. This doesn’t mean “minimalist” , per se — just be wary of ornamentation that d…

> "...that gives the content some air." lots of whitespace and "air" has become especially fashionable in the past many years. it makes design easier in some ways without necessarily pushing it forward. yes, it forces more conscientiousness of essentiality and contribution of each element (a good thing), but it's also used as an ipso facto justification to resist change and meeting needs (a bad thing). i love seeing…

Design is more complicated than just 'give content some air'. Here[0] doing that would be a recipe to disaster. I'm a user of this tool and it really works like it is. I doubt that making it look more trandy would make it more functional.

[0] https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/assets/img-bru/mainscr.p...

Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers

#115

Post by [deleted] »

systemvoltage wrote: post #85
nick-garfield wrote: post #30

I've got to recommend refactoringui.com. They sell a (rather expensive) book on web/mobile app design that explains how to build your design system and use it to create great looking apps. They cover all the bases you would expect like fonts, line-heights, colors, shadows, borders, sizing, working with images, visual hierarchy, using white space, etc. etc. I'm a developer by trade and I work primarily with one other…

I don't know. Just looking at one of the things that they've posted: https://twitter.com/steveschoger/status/981606881255976961 > Overlapping images is a great way to add depth to an interface and make it look more “designed”. I don't know if this is sarcasm. No one is asking why do we need to add "depth"? What problem is "depth" of overlapping icons solving? I would stay away from this.

[deleted]

Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers

#117

Post by JaumeGreen »

denster wrote: post #112
gdubs wrote: post #49

If I could give one piece of advice for technical developers it’s that design isn’t all about the way it looks, it’s about the way it works. To expand on that, it’s how the pieces fit together within your set of constraints. There’s a LOT in common with what makes code beautiful or not. You get to the essential; nothing more, nothing less. This doesn’t mean “minimalist” , per se — just be wary of ornamentation that d…

What's a "non-artistic developer"? I think: 1) Design is like a muscle, you can always develop it 2) Digital experiences [1] are all around us! And they play a more pivotal role in our lives as time goes on. So, hit the gym (practice) & with time everyone can improve. [1] As the https://mintdata.com founder here, I'm highly biased -- I'm not a designer but certainly aspire to improve along this dimension.

Why should we?

I agree that it's trainable, but to create a good icon a first timer can spend several hours. Several hours in which they could be doing work that they have trained for.

If one intents to be a sole developer then yes, they have to improve in all fields, but when one is in a team one has to let some things go, and let people better than them on that field do them.

Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers

#119

Post by JoshTriplett »

elicash wrote: post #18
JoshTriplett wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My strategy: use a known CSS framework like Bootstrap, Any suggestions for using Bootstrap or another CSS framework without using JavaScript? I'd like a pure CSS framework. Bootstrap looks good, but doesn't document what if any limitations will apply if not using their JS.

https://bulma.io has no js included.

That looks promising! The minified version looks a little larger than Bootstrap (200k vs 160k), but it looks impressive, and I'm much happier going with something that uses Flexbox.

Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers

#120

Post by jbverschoor »

gdubs wrote: post #81
the_arun wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the User Experience (UX) is more important than User Interface (UI)?

No, that's not what I mean at all. What I'm saying is that beauty in design doesn't come from slapping a facade onto something. It comes from a harmonious relationship between all the elements, adding up to something that solves the particular 'problem' of that site. UI is a specialization within UX, the way databases are a specialization within Computer Science. CS deals more broadly in the constraints of memory, ti…

Design vs Illustration.

Design is technical. Illustration is creative.

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