Design Secrets For Engineers • Hacker News Board

Re: Design Secrets For Engineers

#11

Post by joelhooks » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 1:04 AM UTC

typicalrunt wrote: post #2

I never thought of using KeyNote to design a UI. I always thought designers use Photoshop or InDesign for that purpose. Is KeyNote used just for the ease of use, or is there some other requirement that the Adobe products don't measure up to?

Keynote is really nice for mockups. It has more than capable drawing tools and the snapping is excellent. It's major benefit over a Photoshop or Illustrator would be its relative simplicity. With mockups that is a big factor. Less complexity in the tool can mean less opportunity to add complexity in your design.

Re: Design Secrets For Engineers

#12

Post by kleiba » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 1:42 AM UTC

What secrets? It feels like I'm reading the exact same design tips (alignment, fonts, colors) at least once per month on some blog linked from HN.

Re: Design Secrets For Engineers

#13

Post by dkrich » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 2:08 AM UTC

I like it, and most of the advice is pretty good.

However, I have one concern- for the past few years, it seems all engineers and designers have been feeding off of each other's ideas, and this has resulted in websites that look nearly identical in color schemes, typeface, and wording.

This makes each successive product less and less distinguishable and boring. I think breaking free from design norms (as long as rules of simplicity are followed) is a good thing. It is what will make users think "wow, this is something I haven't seen before" and thus probably more likely to use it and tell others about it as well. Of course this assumes clever design sense which I believe is something people possess naturally and can't really be taught.

Re: Design Secrets For Engineers

#14

Post by toast76 » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 2:30 AM UTC

Anechoic wrote: post #7

I hate to be that guy, but this isn't "Design Secrets For Engineers", it's "Design Secrets For Software Engineers." (or developers/UIX/etc). "Keep visual hierarchy in check" and "Use designer fonts" isn't very useful advice in designing an instrumented hammer... "Engineering," especially in the colloquial usage of the word, covers a lot areas that have things in common, but there are lots of things those areas don't…

Fortunately, like a good interface, it is immediately and clearly obvious what the function of the article is.

I think it's safe to say that any mechanical engineers that may have read this article were smart enough to realise that the target audience wasn't them.

Re: Design Secrets For Engineers

#15

Post by vladimirm » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 2:44 AM UTC

dkrich wrote: post #13

I like it, and most of the advice is pretty good. However, I have one concern- for the past few years, it seems all engineers and designers have been feeding off of each other's ideas, and this has resulted in websites that look nearly identical in color schemes, typeface, and wording. This makes each successive product less and less distinguishable and boring. I think breaking free from design norms (as long as rule…

What are the design norms we need to break free from?

Re: Design Secrets For Engineers

#16

Post by sliverstorm » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 2:50 AM UTC

toast76 wrote: post #14

Anechoic wrote: post #7

I hate to be that guy, but this isn't "Design Secrets For Engineers", it's "Design Secrets For Software Engineers." (or developers/UIX/etc). "Keep visual hierarchy in check" and "Use designer fonts" isn't very useful advice in designing an instrumented hammer... "Engineering," especially in the colloquial usage of the word, covers a lot areas that have things in common, but there are lots of things those areas don't…

Fortunately, like a good interface, it is immediately and clearly obvious what the function of the article is. I think it's safe to say that any mechanical engineers that may have read this article were smart enough to realise that the target audience wasn't them.

True; your parent is just reacting to the pervasive habit software engineers seem to have, wherein they refer to themselves as if they are the only kind of engineers.

Re: Design Secrets For Engineers

#17

Post by sciurus » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 3:08 AM UTC

sliverstorm wrote: post #16

toast76 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately, like a good interface, it is immediately and clearly obvious what the function of the article is. I think it's safe to say that any mechanical engineers that may have read this article were smart enough to realise that the target audience wasn't them.

True; your parent is just reacting to the pervasive habit software engineers seem to have, wherein they refer to themselves as if they are the only kind of engineers.

Which is particularly annoying if you think software developers shouldn't be called engineers.

Re: Design Secrets For Engineers

#18

Post by ashishgandhi » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 3:16 AM UTC

pnathan wrote: post #10

First sentence: If you are a designer like me, you must be asked on a regular basis to “make it look pretty.” I thought this article was for engineers?

Here engineers do end up doing some sort of design. To a designer these things I imagine are bare basic. To an engineer maybe not.

Re: Design Secrets For Engineers

#19

Post by Benjo » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 3:29 AM UTC

Anechoic wrote: post #7

I hate to be that guy, but this isn't "Design Secrets For Engineers", it's "Design Secrets For Software Engineers." (or developers/UIX/etc). "Keep visual hierarchy in check" and "Use designer fonts" isn't very useful advice in designing an instrumented hammer... "Engineering," especially in the colloquial usage of the word, covers a lot areas that have things in common, but there are lots of things those areas don't…

You could just as easily say it should be "Software Design Secrets for Engineers" right?

Re: Design Secrets For Engineers

#20

Post by Anechoic » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 3:35 AM UTC

toast76 wrote: post #14

Anechoic wrote: post #7

I hate to be that guy, but this isn't "Design Secrets For Engineers", it's "Design Secrets For Software Engineers." (or developers/UIX/etc). "Keep visual hierarchy in check" and "Use designer fonts" isn't very useful advice in designing an instrumented hammer... "Engineering," especially in the colloquial usage of the word, covers a lot areas that have things in common, but there are lots of things those areas don't…

Fortunately, like a good interface, it is immediately and clearly obvious what the function of the article is. I think it's safe to say that any mechanical engineers that may have read this article were smart enough to realise that the target audience wasn't them.

>it is immediately and clearly obvious what the function of the article is.

Not really - I am a mechanical engineer (by degree, acoustical by practice) who took the title at it's word and tried to see if author was trying to share an insight that could be applied to engineering in general. "Line things up" and "Design the white space" is something I could see an author trying to apply across disciplines (not that they did, but again, I was taking the title for what it was and tried to get something out of it).

It's when I got to "Use designer fonts" that I realized it was yet another article where the author used the term 'engineer" to refer to "software engineer."