Ask HN: Best tips and resources for a software eng learning product design

4 points by neilkakkar 3 years ago | 2 comments

I've noticed that I'm design-blind. As long as something is functional, and I have an accurate conceptual model of how it works, I can deal with it. The important part (to me) is whether I can do the things I want done without the product getting in the way. For example, Jira does a terrible job of this, by getting in the way.

What I've come to realise is that this is only a small part of the picture. There's a lot more that goes into design: a product helping you build an accurate model, showing you what's possible, getting out of your way, and the emotional positive response because of the sheer attention to detail.

Recently reading Design of Everyday Things, and I _love_ it because it helped me formulate a model of what objectively good design looks like.

I read RefactoringUI as well, and this felt a lot more 'here are some good rule of thumbs to follow'. Awesome, but I feel I'm still fumbling in the dark. I find myself falling back to these because I don't know better.

So, do you have any tips or resources for helping improve design sense?

brudgers 3 years ago |

Having been a design professional, my best advice:

1. Nobody gives a shit what you like. The personal preferences of the designer are the least useful driver of design. This isn't to discount the designer's aesthetic judgement, but good design comes from applying that judgement to the appropriate context.

2. If you look at something successful and think it's shit, the most likely reason is you don't understand it. Jira sucks? How many weeks have you spent here?

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/guides

And yes, weeks because Jira is a tool of your trade and you should be an expert. And that requires understanding who it is designed for; are you the buyer? Are you even the user in a meaningful sense? Or is Jira designed to be used by organizations?

3. The Design of Everyday Things is a great book and will take your design understanding from near zero to some value clearly not near zero. But it won't give you training and it won't give you experience.

4. More importantly, it won't give you the habit of grinding on a design for the months or years it takes to polish someone else's turds to a mirror finish. The only way to get good at design is by designing.

5. Serious design work doesn't feel like you imagine it feels. Serious design work feels like hard work. You might enjoy the hard work, but it is still hard work.

6. There is no silver bullet. Forget about tips and tricks. Do the work.

7. Efficiency is what design produces. Inefficiency is how that happens. Good luck.

andreareina 3 years ago |

Pay attention to how you feel when using things, and see if you can figure out the elements of the design that make you feel that way. Ask yourself what things does the tool make easy and what does it make hard and how that effects the way you use it.The Design of Everyday Things gives a good starting point of features and antifeatures to look out for, but don't take it as gospel; nothing is going to replace you forming (and introspecting!) your own opinions.