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NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers
91–100 of 164 posts
Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers
#92If 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…
> design isn’t all about the way it looks, it’s about the way it works.
That's a dangerous thing to say, I think. Because the way it looks is the way it works.
A huge part of design is managing the prominence (and presence/absence) of various elements, so people understand what something does, and find it as effortless as possible to find and take the actions they want.
Prominence is managed by relative size, weight, hue, brightness, saturation, shadow, whitespace, opacity, ornamentation, vertical ordering, horizontal ordering, and so on.
All of those things are how it "looks".
Presence/absence is managed by hierarchy, expand, hover, etc.
All of those are also how it looks, by what's removed or shown.
I think I agree with where you're coming from, especially in your last paragraph. I'm just worried that your first sentence is easily misinterpretable as "as long as all the information is on the webpage, fonts/colors/spacing are mostly irrelevant".
Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers
#93If 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…
> design isn’t all about the way it looks, it’s about the way it works. That's a dangerous thing to say, I think. Because the way it looks is the way it works. A huge part of design is managing the prominence (and presence/absence) of various elements, so people understand what something does, and find it as effortless as possible to find and take the actions they want. Prominence is managed by relative size, weight,…
> Because the way it looks is the way it works.
You're thinking of visual design. That's obviously a significant part of a thing's design, but design is about so much more.
Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't this for people who cannot afford to have a graphic designer? Unless it is an open source project I feel it would be rude to ask someone to work for free on it.
Unless it is an open source project I feel it would be rude to ask someone to work for free on it. I said work with a designer, as in a collaboration. As in bring them onboard as a co-founder, give them equity, have an agreement to share profits. Pay them if you can. Share skills by getting them to do design work on your side project in return for coding their side project. There are lots of ways to work with people.…
Ok, thanks, I misunderstood you. It was absolutely not intentional.
That said wouldn't it be risky to bring someone you hardly know on as cofounder?
Does anyone here have good experience with that?
Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers
#95I'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.
I feel like you could ask similar "why" questions about everything design-related. "Why is no one asking why good-looking, modern designs are necessary?"
Many people interpret quality of design as an indicator of content or product quality.
To address your particular question, depth creates a more realistic and visually interesting representation of information on a screen. It can also serve to indicate the priority of information on a page. If depth draws your eye to or away from a particular element, it can help to achieve the designer's goals.
Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I feel like you could ask similar "why" questions about everything design-related. "Why is no one asking why good-looking, modern designs are necessary?" Many people interpret quality of design as an indicator of content or product quality. To address your particular question, depth creates a more realistic and visually interesting representation of information on a screen. It can also serve to indicate the priority…
This is how you get more "trendy" designs than something timeless when fundamentals are thought through.
Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers
#97If 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…
> design isn’t all about the way it looks, it’s about the way it works. That's a dangerous thing to say, I think. Because the way it looks is the way it works. A huge part of design is managing the prominence (and presence/absence) of various elements, so people understand what something does, and find it as effortless as possible to find and take the actions they want. Prominence is managed by relative size, weight,…
We're mostly talking about the same thing. Simply put, I'm primarily talking about the distinction between choosing something because it looks cool – and sometimes what looks cool is a very important constraint – vs having intention in one's design choices. Like you point out, things like prominence, progressive disclosure, etc. Those aren't superficial choices; they actually serve a purpose, and are a way to fit within a set of constraints.
For most, yes, it will end up represented in 'how it looks', but I'm underlining the importance of 'how it got there'.
(Aside: worth just highlighting for everyone that not everyone is sighted, that accessibility matters, and that not every design choice is visual.)
Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers
#98If 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…
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 characterize such approaches as reductionist and limiting.
Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers
#99I'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…
Another +1 recommendation for the book and related videos. While it has not been a silver bullet (nothing is), it has given me a lot of helpful tools to improve my designs. The book does a good job of filling the "design for engineers" gap that I have observed while trying to find good resources on web design.
Re: NoDesign.dev – Tools and resources for non-artistic developers
#100This is very helpful indeed! It's difficult to find aspiration sometimes if you're not in the "flow" for quite a while.