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Ask HN: Web developers – how did you get good at designing things?

2 points by gurgus ↗ HN
I'm a web dev with a decade of experience with all things frontend, but I mostly consider myself a JavaScript engineer more than anything else.

I've found that for most things, I can usually work out how to get good/decent at something by reading/writing code/watching talks/talking to peers etc... However, the one thing that I still remain utterly garbage at is design. I can implement layouts and implement designs when given them from a designer, but for the life of me I cannot come up with anything that looks pretty from scratch. I want to get better at this but can't work out how to improve.

Can anyone with a similar background (or any background, really) share their story+tips?

6 comments

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meerita
Well, as everything is life, you need first to learn and practice the basics, until you master them. With time you will get proficient, when you know how to combine color, shapes, distributions, layouts, etc. It's all about self-development.
meerita
I always recommend books from swiss designers, specially typography and grid systems. They're quite mathematical like for programmers and interesting to practice.
jppope
I think one thing that really helped me was to not start from a blank page and think you are going to build a good design just by throwing stuff on there... go find other designs that you like, look at the bits and pieces that make them a good design and take those parts. Get inspiration from places like dribbble.com or Awwwards.com... theres some really good work there that you can use to build from
gurgus
That's something similar to what I've been doing lately where I've been trying to use colour palettes I like from other sites in my own designs but it's so hard to get the feel right... This is probably why design is its own full-time job!
JoelMcCracken
I would use the benjamin franklin method. This is often how I have gotten better at things in general, though I am not that great at design (and I am also trying to improve!)

- find a design you like. save it. If you pick a design that is too complex, try to break it down into just a small component.

- describe the design somehow

- try to recreate it.

- Compare your recreation with the original, noticing how the design differs.

- Iterate on this process.