Design Books Every Hacker Should Read • Hacker News Board

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#71

Post by babuskov » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 10:49 AM UTC

I found the Non Designers Design Book by Robin Williams irreplaceable. It really improved my understanding and skill. Instead of mediocre and bad designs, I can now create stuff that passes the bar. The most important thing it teaches you, is how to detect what is bad with some design and what to do to fix it.

http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-Willia...

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#72

Post by danso » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 11:01 AM UTC

This isn't about programming related design, but "A Pattern Language" is a classic, with architectural and urban design principles that apply in many other domains: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pattern_Language

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#73

Post by rc1 » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 12:07 PM UTC

jerrya wrote: post #67

I don't want to seem snarky, but that first picture you have there, the one of a collection of books where I have to tilt my head to read them and that book on the left is called "Design of Everyday Things" and talks about designing things so that ... for instance... people don't have to tilt their heads to read them. Why don't you rotate that picture, 90 degrees counter-clockwise?

I can think of a few reasons why it might be like that: to lead the reader into the article; to provide context of a library; to fit with the visual flow. Easy to criticise (especially on the grounds of efficiency) more interesting to critique... which is why many of these books are worth reading. Every wonder why the design of everyday computers are designed to keep us so stationary?

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#74

Post by jalfresi » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 12:08 PM UTC

richo wrote: post #63

I love this "every hacker" who evidently builds frontend systems.

ALL Software has a front end - a user has to use it at some point!

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#75

Post by eperoumal » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 12:16 PM UTC

I would definitely add "Nudge" by Thaler & Sunstein to the list. It really helps understand how people choices are motivated, thus how to make good design choices.

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#76

Post by dylanrw » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 12:17 PM UTC

As a designer I can recommend each of these books.

I'm seeing in various comments that 'hackers' and 'designers' are two different things, and that a 'hacker' needs a certain type of book or format to the material. I'd submit that most hackers have a thirst for knowledge, part from curiosity and part from a desire to be self sufficient in making their concepts a reality. Digest knowledge, practice the technique until it works and you've realized your goal? Does this not encapsulate the 'hacker spirit'? It's funny because most great designers I know came from the same perspective...

So I say put aside this idea of Hacker vs. Designer and who needs what. A design is a solution to a problem, visual design language/concepts are another tool set to help you make effective software and so much more. Don't treat it like its some sort of voodoo that only left-brainers can comprehend.

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#77

Post by netcan » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 1:16 PM UTC

riffraff wrote: post #64

timc3 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly like discoverability of APIs, or the documentation of a library.

Latin is related to many things, but surely we can agree it's not a "must learn" for someone designing a device driver. Something as general as "don't make me think" may make sense for API design, but honestly I doubt the applicability of "The Elements of Typographic Style" or "Grid Systems" to library documentation and API discoverability.

Perhaps you are taking the headline a little to seriously, literally. How about.

"Design Books Every Hacker Who Would Like to Read About Design Should Consider Reading Unless They are Designing an API"

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#78

Post by bennyg » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 2:37 PM UTC

The news.layervault.com link takes me back to the top of the page.

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#79

Post by shmerl » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 3:07 PM UTC

nezza-_- wrote: post #59

shmerl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks better now, but I'd still make the font a bit larger. That's how it looks in my browser: http://freeimagehosting.net/newuploads/cyqjo.png (Firefox 18 / KDE 4.8).

Wow, your system has super crappy font rendering IMHO.

Not really - it depends on the choice of fonts and their settings. Most sites look good on my system. Occasionally you get such ones, which look weirdly because they rely on some non existent font, and are rendered in fallback mode, using some generic one. If you want to avoid relying on system dependent fonts, use WOFF.

Example (from this site):

    font-family: 'proxima-nova', 'proxima-nova', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;

proxima-nova and Helvetica Neue are not common fonts, so putting them as first with fallback to Helvetica is not the best option, if the font isn't provided as WOFF.

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#80

Post by dreamdu5t » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 3:55 PM UTC

The only necessary book on design, at only 46 pages, is "Notes on Graphic Design And Visual Communication."

I have met AIGA award designers and Internet design celebrities who don't know some of the basics laid out in this short book.

It's probably the only handwritten book you'll ever read.

http://www.amazon.com/Crisp-Graphic-Design-Visual-Communicat...