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Ask HN: As an experienced dev,how hard is to become great at designing great UIs

2 points by soulbadguy 11y ago

As an experienced dev , how hard is to become good at designing great UIs (both from in term aesthetic and usability) ? i have an idea for an app (android) and i am trying to decide if i should subcontract the UI design or just learn to do it myself. Any resource on UI desi gn would also be greatly appreciated.

pravj 11y ago
You should have asked it in the Ask HN section. For that, you can change your title like this, "Ask HN : <Your Current Title>"
harkyns_castle 11y ago
I wouldn't say I'm good at great UIs, but my approach has been that of a bowerbird - find things you love using, and copy them. Over time, you'll gradually pick up approaches that you like and refine them, and combine them. Though I imagine a quick course in HCI, UI design, UX wouldn't hurt either.
meesterdude 11y ago
The poster is asking how hard it is. If you don't know what you're doing, very. Lots of details and thought and reasonings are involved. But it really depends; if its just your side project, and your UI won't matter much, then do it yourself. If you need to nail the UI in order for your app to be successful, subcontract it out.
seanmcdirmid 11y ago
Have you gone to design school and/or spent the requisite 10,000 hours practicing design (programming UIs doesn't count)? You can become great at anything if you put the time into it, but you might have to take time away from striving to be a great dev to being a great designer, which is a completely different career track...few master both.
redmattred 11y ago
This is a pretty good design series that breaks down the fundamentals of design for non designers: https://hackdesign.org/ https://hackdesign.org/
seekingcharlie 11y ago
I don't think you could ever really compete with a senior UI/UX designer unless you were committed to it full-time. However, I do think that you can hack something together that would be sufficient. I second that you should look at designs that you like & try to imitate them. This is a good reference, particularly for Android: http://pttrns.com/ http://pttrns.com/ Also, Material Design: http://www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/introduction.html http://www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/introducti... https://dribbble.com/search?q=material+design https://dribbble.com/search?q=material+design
Zigurd 11y ago
As others here have pointed out, you're not going to be as good as a top-notch designer, any more than a noob at coding is going to produce great code. BUT there's a top notch designer I know who recently had this advice for coders who can't afford him: Follow the Material Design guidelines and it will look as good as it can without a designer working on it.

2 points by soulbadguy 11y ago

pravj 11y ago

You should have asked it in the Ask HN section. For that, you can change your title like this, "Ask HN : <Your Current Title>"

harkyns_castle 11y ago

I wouldn't say I'm good at great UIs, but my approach has been that of a bowerbird - find things you love using, and copy them. Over time, you'll gradually pick up approaches that you like and refine them, and combine them. Though I imagine a quick course in HCI, UI design, UX wouldn't hurt either.

meesterdude 11y ago

The poster is asking how hard it is. If you don't know what you're doing, very. Lots of details and thought and reasonings are involved. But it really depends; if its just your side project, and your UI won't matter much, then do it yourself. If you need to nail the UI in order for your app to be successful, subcontract it out.

seanmcdirmid 11y ago

Have you gone to design school and/or spent the requisite 10,000 hours practicing design (programming UIs doesn't count)? You can become great at anything if you put the time into it, but you might have to take time away from striving to be a great dev to being a great designer, which is a completely different career track...few master both.

redmattred 11y ago

This is a pretty good design series that breaks down the fundamentals of design for non designers: https://hackdesign.org/ https://hackdesign.org/

seekingcharlie 11y ago

I don't think you could ever really compete with a senior UI/UX designer unless you were committed to it full-time. However, I do think that you can hack something together that would be sufficient. I second that you should look at designs that you like & try to imitate them. This is a good reference, particularly for Android: http://pttrns.com/ http://pttrns.com/ Also, Material Design: http://www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/introduction.html http://www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/introducti... https://dribbble.com/search?q=material+design https://dribbble.com/search?q=material+design

Zigurd 11y ago

As others here have pointed out, you're not going to be as good as a top-notch designer, any more than a noob at coding is going to produce great code. BUT there's a top notch designer I know who recently had this advice for coders who can't afford him: Follow the Material Design guidelines and it will look as good as it can without a designer working on it.