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Ask HN: Good Books or Resources for Web Design

28 points by tyingq ↗ HN
I have a friend with very solid design skills, but all in the print world...posters, flyers, etc. Very literate with the entire Adobe toolset, but again, with printed output.

He's been offered a job that will pull him into the web world. He was upfront about his lack of web experience, but they were impressed enough to hire him anyway.

What books and/or online resources should he be looking at to help him make the transition?

11 comments

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indescions_2017
Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD are modern tools for web user interaction design. And Smashing's website is a good place to start:

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/

I also love Google's Design site. Thinking about a single design language. That can be transmuted across Chrome, Android, VR and AR. Is a really powerful way to think about interfaces that can be used by billions of users. Good Luck :)

Designing SPAN 2017: An inside look at how we design and evolve the branding of our annual design and technology conference.By Google Design

https://design.google/library/designing-span-2017/

achairapart
The two most important things to keep in mind for friends from the printed world:

1) Digital has its own aesthetic.

2) Forget everything about the canvas, the web is a fluid medium.

There are tons of pratical resources about digital design. For a more theoretical perspective, take a look at Frank Chimero's writings, they are both inspiring and enlightening:

1) What screens want: https://frankchimero.com/writing/what-screens-want/

2) The Web's Grain: https://frankchimero.com/writing/the-webs-grain/

pcurve
1,2 are very solid advice.

It would be good to know more about in what capacity your friend is going to be work as. Interaction designer? What kind of product will he be designing? Will there be other coworkers to fill digital knowledge gap?

tyingq
"what capacity your friend is going to be work as. Interaction designer"

It sounds like he will be brought in as a junior contributor with plenty of more experienced team members around him. I don't know the specifics of what the exact job duties are. It seemed to be recognition of the raw graphic talent and willingness to learn. He's a recent grad.

The firm creates sites and apps for 3rd party clients.

tyingq
Just an update to say thanks for the answers. HN is truly unique in the quality of the feedback.
zzzcpan
Web design doesn't have much in common with print, it's more about user experience, usability, psychology, etc. For those things Steve Krug's book is nice, I would also suggest Jakob Nielsen, you may know his quote that users spend most of their time on other web sites. Tools are different too, like Balsamiq. Approaches are different. The only thing in common is graphic design part of the web design, but with different constraints of course, not much new to learn here after print.
patricklynch
My favorite resources are now all slightly dated; I haven't really kept up with the cutting edge as I've moved away from design and towards development.

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Web:

A List Apart, especially the articles section - https://alistapart.com/articles

CSS Zen Garden - http://www.csszengarden.com/

Magic Ink - Information Software and the Graphical Interface, by Bret Victor - http://worrydream.com/#!2/MagicInk

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Print:

Flexible Web Design: Creating Liquid and Elastic Layouts with CSS, by Zoe Mickley Gillenwater

The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web, by Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag

Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design, by Andy Clarke