61–70 of 70 posts
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Also: I am a colorblind engineer. How can I pick color schemes that don't make infants cry and write copy that isn't a legendary cure for insomnia?
John Hicks (of Firefox-icon-fame) is a colorblind designer. He gives some hints for coping on his blog sometimes -- http://hicksdesign.co.uk/tag/colourblindness/
This stuff is so much more credible when it's self-exemplifying.
I am thinking this will be a good follow up to "Design for Hackers".
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Something that would be hugely useful to me (a code monkey who knows good design when he sees it but is incapable of producing anything that looks nice himself) is a chapter that covers a few essential skills in Photoshop or Fireworks. Basic nuts and bolts stuff like: - how to use a few simple effects and filters to blend images in to backgrounds or do a cutout or colorize an image to match the sites colour palette -…
Great suggestion. Learning design software, at least basics, can be productive. Some designers will disagree on this point—many are moving away from Photoshop altogether. However it's more difficult to try color variations for a gradient by typing in hex colors, for example. Including up some basic techniques would make sense. (Every professional designer has a few go-to tricks.) I'm thinking about providing some fre…
I'm all for getting developers some design skills and I'm sure the book will help. That said mastering anything takes time. Could you give a designer a Rails for Dummies book and claim "Save thousands by not hiring a developer"? Update: I'm a full time developer now but I graduated with a design degree. It took me two years of full time development to become a competent developer. Mostly because when I started out I…
If a designer had a great idea for a simple app, then yes a Rails for Dummies book would suffice I'd say. So why not the other way round? Also, it's not always the case that a developer has spare money to pay a designer with (the ideal situation). I don't have cash but I do have some spare time in the evenings to work on my businesses.
It's like this. I want to fit a new bathroom in my house. I could do it, but it would take me a week, it won't cost me any money. If I hire a plumber, he'll do it in 2 days and charge $500.
Damn, $500? Well my freelance day rate is $250, so I'll just freelance for a couple of days. Net result is I just saved myself 5 days.
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If a designer had a great idea for a simple app, then yes a Rails for Dummies book would suffice I'd say. So why not the other way round? Also, it's not always the case that a developer has spare money to pay a designer with (the ideal situation). I don't have cash but I do have some spare time in the evenings to work on my businesses.
this is false economy. saving money is not the objective in testing an idea. The objective is to launch the best product you can in the smallest amount of time. mvp. time trumps money - always. It's like this. I want to fit a new bathroom in my house. I could do it, but it would take me a week, it won't cost me any money. If I hire a plumber, he'll do it in 2 days and charge $500. Damn, $500? Well my freelance day ra…
Do your own plumbing while you have a 2-day work drought: you've learned some plumbing.
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Great suggestion. Learning design software, at least basics, can be productive. Some designers will disagree on this point—many are moving away from Photoshop altogether. However it's more difficult to try color variations for a gradient by typing in hex colors, for example. Including up some basic techniques would make sense. (Every professional designer has a few go-to tricks.) I'm thinking about providing some fre…
Where are they moving to?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something that would be hugely useful to me (a code monkey who knows good design when he sees it but is incapable of producing anything that looks nice himself) is a chapter that covers a few essential skills in Photoshop or Fireworks. Basic nuts and bolts stuff like: - how to use a few simple effects and filters to blend images in to backgrounds or do a cutout or colorize an image to match the sites colour palette -…
Great suggestion. Learning design software, at least basics, can be productive. Some designers will disagree on this point—many are moving away from Photoshop altogether. However it's more difficult to try color variations for a gradient by typing in hex colors, for example. Including up some basic techniques would make sense. (Every professional designer has a few go-to tricks.) I'm thinking about providing some fre…