#15 in Computers & technology books

Reddit mentions of Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edition) (Voices That Matter)

Sentiment score: 70
Reddit mentions: 100

We found 100 Reddit mentions of Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edition) (Voices That Matter). Here are the top ones.

Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edition) (Voices That Matter)
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Found 100 comments on Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edition) (Voices That Matter):

u/TJSomething · 70 pointsr/CrappyDesign

I'd recommend figuring out who's responsible and them giving them a copy of Don't Make Me Think. It's a relatively short book, so they might actually read it, then they might actually get some good ideas.

u/berkes · 47 pointsr/webdev

Exactly this.

For quite some projects, I had to find a freelance frontender or webdesigner.
Here's how that goes:

  • I post an ad, classified or get names via referrers.
  • I wade through that to make a shortlist of 20+ candidates.
  • One by one I visit their sites, looking for a Resume or a Portfolio.
  • One by one, I have to wade through weird navigation, presentations, fucking horizontal scrolling, skipintros. I even had to open the source to find what fucking image represents a link to the portfolio. I've had to wait for some fancy JS caroussel to take me through the portfolio. I've had to watch videos, in order to see the resume.

    I'ts a great way to separate the rubbish developers from the good ones. If you manage to present your information on one page, with a few clicks to learn more about a certain project, in clean, simple HTML, preferable recenly updated to work on mobile (responsive): you're through. But if you cooked up your navigation while on LSD using Suprise.js or WhittyScroll.js you're out.

    Browsing 20+ sites from designers truly is a hell. So, nowadays, I simply ask them to email me the resumes.

    Because I too realise that a good webdeveloper or designer is hired most of the time. And as such, won't have time to redesign his or her site after every new change of technology. I can understand if your site looks like it was from 2008, if you've been hired and busy since 2008, it's actually a good sign.

    But really. Don't make me think. Ever.
u/Leave-A-Note · 29 pointsr/web_design

It's not a long book, but it is all about usability. It's called "Don't Make Me Think". It's informative and concise.

That Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321965515/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_5Ohuzb82F6BEF

u/dc_woods · 9 pointsr/web_design

As a person with no education beyond high school, take all that I say with a grain of salt. I'm a pretty successful web designer and front-end developer, having working with four startups and done a year of freelancing.

It is not uncommon to hear industry peers criticize the education system as it pertains to web design because often the practices you learn are no longer the standard or relevant. I've heard of many stories where designers exit college (with no working experience, obviously) and have an incredibly difficult time finding work for the reasons I listed above.

Education has never been brought up at any of the companies I've worked or those that I've consulted with. I believe the reason for this is that I have a body of work to show along with whatever reputation I've garnered on Dribbble, say.

All this being said, it is entirely possible for you to develop your skills on your own, such as I did, and find work. I'm happy to list all the reading materials that I own that helped me get where I am now. I'll list what I remember but I'll have to go check when I can get a second:

Hardboiled Web Design
HTML5 for Web Designers
CSS3 for Web Designers
The Elements of Content Strategy
Responsive Web Design
Designing for Emotion
Design is a Job
Mobile First
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
The Elements of Typographic Style
Thinking with Type
The Icon Handbook
Don't Make Me Think

If you invest your money in those and actually read them, you will be well on your way. Feel free to ping me. Good luck!

u/regexpressyourself · 9 pointsr/learnprogramming

I liked "Don't Make Me Think" for basic user experience and layout stuff. It's mostly about web design, but it can definitely apply elsewhere.

u/Architarious · 8 pointsr/web_design

You'd probably have better luck with this at /r/design_critiques

But, for now, there's a ton of spacing issues and bugs that come up when going between different viewports. (you're primary navigation only shows the first two links at mobile size) Also, your social media icons at the bottom appear to be skewed and could use more padding. If I was you I would go back and redesign for mobile-first. Maybe even look into using bootstrap

As far as basic visuals go, You're going a little heavy on all the jquery and animations. It's hard to focus on any one thing cause there's so many different things poping and bouncing around everywhere. In that respect it almost puts me in the mind of a geocities website(no-offense). Just because you can animate something doesn't mean you should.

Also, you have to click on the icons or arrows in order to read them. And whenever you do, there's no active state on the icons(or any navigational items) to tell me which subject the information is relating to. In web design, un-seen information is always un-read information. Not to mention that I have to scroll past the content to click on the icons (or secondary navigation).

This site doesn't have a ton of content, but for some reason it feels like there's no negative space. I'd say this is mostly due to the fact that your using so much grey. Since there's no real contrast between anything, there's no real negative space. Try making your background color white or super light grey like (#efefef) and see how that looks. This will also help you out accessibility wise, because people with astigmatisms sometimes have problems with contrast may not be able to read your main content at the current moment, no matter what it's size is.

You also want to look at how your currently using your colors and imagery. You need to step back and ask yourself what the functional purpose of everything that is taking up real-estate on the screen. Generally, when people only use one color like orange in a monotone grey pallet, they're utilizing it as an ambient signifier for a call to action (think about how colors change from station to station when you're on a subway). You want to use that color to tell people to "click here!" or "look at this and do something now!". Right now it draws my eye to the name and a selling point, but I have no idea what to do afterword. For reference, check out how these sites are using their accent colors: http://www.awwwards.com/websites/minimal/

TL:DR; In short, there's a ton of web and usability standards along with design principles that you're overlooking. I would advise getting a book like Steve Krug's - Don't Make Me Think and studying it. It's short and fast read and it will save you mountains of time, frustration, and wasted effort. Also, be sure to review that AWWARDS.com link above. Make a list of what you think they're doing right and what they're doing wrong.

Sorry, I hope that wasn't too harsh, I'm just trying to help and sometimes honesty can be brutal.

u/mstoiber · 7 pointsr/web_design

I'd start learning more about design and design theory.

Start with The Principles of Beautiful Web Design to get an introduction to Web Design, go on to Elements of Style to learn more about typography and finish with Don't make me think and Above The Fold to get started with User Experience.

u/Wayne_Enterprises_ · 6 pointsr/userexperience

This should get you started :)

Books:

u/Wentzel142 · 6 pointsr/cscareerquestions

I'm just about to graduate with my undergrad in CS with a specialization in HCI, and have had multiple UX internships. Read these two books, they'll provide a really good baseline of knowledge about user-centric design.

The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman

Don't Make Me Think - Steve Krug

While the second one typically focuses more on web, they're both amazing books that should be in the library of any UX/HCI specialist.

The best way to start building a portfolio is to, well, just do. Find anything (not just a program/app, even) that you don't like the design of, and start from there. Try and redesign it to make things easier to figure out. Show it to others to gauge reactions and get feedback. Iterate and improve.

There are a bajillion different programs for UI prototyping, but the first tool I'd suggest is good ol' pencil and paper. Get yourself a sketchbook and keep it in your backpack (or with you in some other capacity) at all times. When you have a design idea, drop everything, make a quick sketch, and go back to what you were doing. Ideas are fleeting and temporary, so it's best to get it on paper before you forget. Once you've got time, try and improve on those designs and think of what would work and what wouldn't. After you're happy (and have shown it to others for feedback), take it into some prototyping app like Balsamiq, Indigo Studio, or Sketch. Render it in high quality and start seeing how users would react to it in its natural setting (put it on a phone, or on a computer, etc. for testing). It's all about getting user feedback because one person on one computer may not have all the right ideas.

tl;dr: Read books. Redesign crappy things. GET A SKETCHBOOK. Feedback, feedback, feedback.

u/tech-ninja · 6 pointsr/ProgrammerHumor

Depends what you want to learn. Some of my favorites are

  • Code by Charles Petzold if you want to know how your computer works under the hood.

  • Peopleware if you want to learn how to manage knowledge workers.

  • Clean Code by Uncle Bob if you want to learn about good practices and program structure. Impressive content, covers much more than I expected.

  • Don't Make Me Think if you want to learn about usability.

  • Algorithms by Robert Sedgewick if you want to learn about DS & algorithms.

  • The Art of UNIX Programming by Eric S. Raymond if you want to learn about the unix philosophy. Lots of hidden gems in there. Have you ever heard: write programs that do one thing and do it well; don't tune for speed until you've measured; imagine all this knowledge distilled to you in one book.

    This a good list to get you started :) most of my favorite books are not language specific.
u/xashen · 6 pointsr/web_design

Don't Make Me Think is an excellent book on UX/UI design.

u/echoeightythree · 5 pointsr/Frontend

Start with the book "Don't Make Me Think" (the latest edition) and Google's Material Design. They're good introduction to visual design for digital interfaces. Then learn basic design foundation theories, these are things that all type of designers need to know. Learn the tools designers use such as photoshop (or Sketch), Illustrator, Axure, etc. Then find projects to practice on and get designers to critique your work as much as you can. Designing "in a way that is pleasing to the human eye" is something you learn through trial and error.

I'm the opposite of you. I'm a designer who wants to get better at front end coding (html/css/javascript). I will review and critique your designs, if you are willing to do the same for my code. PM me if you want partner up. This offer is also open to any coders out there, by the way.

u/pablostanley · 5 pointsr/UI_Design

Don't Make Me Think is an old-but-gold one :)

u/abd1tus · 5 pointsr/webdev

Some resources to look into:

  • Good UI
  • Material Design
  • Material UI
  • Bootstrap
  • Don't Make Me Think Revisited

    To get started quickly and especially in the absence of a style guide, don't try to come up with with novel designs on your own at first. Look at existing resources available and use them as a starting point. A good exercise would be to go to the the material ui or bootstrap site and put together some
    pages using thier existing components (especially paper, cards, and nav bars) and blend together their examples.

u/catatafishh · 5 pointsr/Dirtybomb

Ah, it seems we have just filled those positions! Apologies to get your hopes up, that was bad timing. We will need more UI designers later this year - most likely in late Summer. Perhaps this is better suited for you anyway so you have time to prepare an application!

Adobe XD is a must - the fastest "basic" prototyping I've ever experienced. I've pushed it's use through our studio and it's producing awesome results (at least till InVision Studio comes out!). After Effects is optional but an invaluable tool for communicating bespoke animations for the programmers.

Really, as long as you can apply good UX practices to your designs, consider different player experiences at all stages, and can create something awesome in XD / Photoshop / Illustrator that is enough.

Some relevant books from the top of my head:

u/Lavender_poop · 5 pointsr/marketing

I have a few, not all specifically about marketing but related to business, growth, customer experience, etc.

u/MarcMurray92 · 5 pointsr/webdev

Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug is basically a must read.

This blog post - 7 tips for creating gorgeous UI is a great primer, with lots to think about presented as a few tips focused on aesthetics.

This blog - The Nilsen Norman Group is a great resource for the "functional" end of things, full of tips and research results on what people find the easiest and most enjoyable to use.

u/partybusiness · 5 pointsr/gamedev

I have a web-dev background, so my influences often come from that rather than game-specific stuff.

About Face: https://www.amazon.ca/About-Face-Essentials-Interface-Design/dp/1568843224

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information: https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi

Don't Make Me Think: https://www.amazon.ca/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515/

u/Swisst · 4 pointsr/design_critiques

Without going into a lot of details, I would really suggest taking some time to study design fundamentals. A lot of your work looks like it stems from quick experiments with filters and various online tutorials. A better understanding of type, space, hierarchy, etc. will take you far.

Books like Thinking with Type, [Don't Make Me Think] (http://amzn.com/0321965515), and Making and Breaking the Grid would be a great place to start. Buy those—or get them from a library—and read them cover to cover.

u/CSMastermind · 4 pointsr/learnprogramming

I've posted this before but I'll repost it here:

Now in terms of the question that you ask in the title - this is what I recommend:

Job Interview Prep


  1. Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions
  2. Programming Interviews Exposed: Coding Your Way Through the Interview
  3. Introduction to Algorithms
  4. The Algorithm Design Manual
  5. Effective Java
  6. Concurrent Programming in Java™: Design Principles and Pattern
  7. Modern Operating Systems
  8. Programming Pearls
  9. Discrete Mathematics for Computer Scientists

    Junior Software Engineer Reading List


    Read This First


  10. Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware

    Fundementals


  11. Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction
  12. Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art
  13. Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach
  14. Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
  15. Coder to Developer: Tools and Strategies for Delivering Your Software
  16. Perfect Software: And Other Illusions about Testing
  17. Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application

    Understanding Professional Software Environments


  18. Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game
  19. Software Project Survival Guide
  20. The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky
  21. Debugging the Development Process: Practical Strategies for Staying Focused, Hitting Ship Dates, and Building Solid Teams
  22. Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules
  23. Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams

    Mentality


  24. Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency
  25. Against Method
  26. The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development

    History


  27. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
  28. Computing Calamities: Lessons Learned from Products, Projects, and Companies That Failed
  29. The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management

    Mid Level Software Engineer Reading List


    Read This First


  30. Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth

    Fundementals


  31. The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers
  32. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
  33. Solid Code
  34. Code Craft: The Practice of Writing Excellent Code
  35. Software Craftsmanship: The New Imperative
  36. Writing Solid Code

    Software Design


  37. Head First Design Patterns: A Brain-Friendly Guide
  38. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
  39. Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software
  40. Domain-Driven Design Distilled
  41. Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design
  42. Design Patterns in C# - Even though this is specific to C# the pattern can be used in any OO language.
  43. Refactoring to Patterns

    Software Engineering Skill Sets


  44. Building Microservices: Designing Fine-Grained Systems
  45. Software Factories: Assembling Applications with Patterns, Models, Frameworks, and Tools
  46. NoEstimates: How To Measure Project Progress Without Estimating
  47. Object-Oriented Software Construction
  48. The Art of Software Testing
  49. Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software
  50. Working Effectively with Legacy Code
  51. Test Driven Development: By Example

    Databases


  52. Database System Concepts
  53. Database Management Systems
  54. Foundation for Object / Relational Databases: The Third Manifesto
  55. Refactoring Databases: Evolutionary Database Design
  56. Data Access Patterns: Database Interactions in Object-Oriented Applications

    User Experience


  57. Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
  58. The Design of Everyday Things
  59. Programming Collective Intelligence: Building Smart Web 2.0 Applications
  60. User Interface Design for Programmers
  61. GUI Bloopers 2.0: Common User Interface Design Don'ts and Dos

    Mentality


  62. The Productive Programmer
  63. Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
  64. Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming
  65. Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering

    History


  66. Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software
  67. New Turning Omnibus: 66 Excursions in Computer Science
  68. Hacker's Delight
  69. The Alchemist
  70. Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages
  71. The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood

    Specialist Skills


    In spite of the fact that many of these won't apply to your specific job I still recommend reading them for the insight, they'll give you into programming language and technology design.

  72. Peter Norton's Assembly Language Book for the IBM PC
  73. Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets
  74. Enough Rope to Shoot Yourself in the Foot: Rules for C and C++ Programming
  75. The C++ Programming Language
  76. Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs
  77. More Effective C++: 35 New Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs
  78. More Effective C#: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your C#
  79. CLR via C#
  80. Mr. Bunny's Big Cup o' Java
  81. Thinking in Java
  82. JUnit in Action
  83. Functional Programming in Scala
  84. The Art of Prolog: Advanced Programming Techniques
  85. The Craft of Prolog
  86. Programming Perl: Unmatched Power for Text Processing and Scripting
  87. Dive into Python 3
  88. why's (poignant) guide to Ruby
u/rafaelspecta · 4 pointsr/smallbusiness

MORE PRODUCT-ORIENTED BOOKS

"Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love" (Marty Cagan) - 2008

https://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-Love/dp/0981690408

"Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers" (Geoffrey A. Moore) - 1991/1999/2014

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC119W/

Don't Make me Think (Steve Krug)

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515

Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age (Roman Pichler) - 2016

https://www.amazon.com/Strategize-Product-Strategy-Roadmap-Practices/dp/0993499201

u/milky_donut · 4 pointsr/web_design

Aside from making things look nice they also have to function well too. Design should go hand-in-hand with user experience. I suggest reading the book Don't Make Me Think to get an understanding of why things are laid out. You can have a nice website but if it doesn't function well your users will opt out in coming back.

Start going to your other favorite websites and find what they have in common and what's different and keep notes that you could back to and reference; you'll start to notice a common theme in layout. There's Behance, Awwwards, Dribbble (though don't take too much away from here), Smashing Magazine, A List Apart, and more.

Learn color theory and typography -- I suggest Thinking with Type. Like another user said: draw inspiration not only from web design, but take inspiration from other sources.

u/whitesooty · 4 pointsr/italy

Ecco la mia lista/elenco disordinato.

Mi piacerebbe spiegare il perché su ogni libro letto ma sarebbe troppo lungo. Se sei interessato ad un feedback in particolare, fammi sapere in un commento.

In generale: in questo periodo si trova molta letteratura; io consiglio i classici, perché in giro c'è molta bullshit e ho elencato anche tutta una serie di libri per acquisire conoscenza su skills complementari (es. negoziazione, persuasione).

Ho elencato i libri di Codice Edizioni a parte perché uno dei pochi editori che pubblica saggi su argomenti contemporanei come tecnologia e media.

Una parola in più la spendo per i libri di Mari e Munari: sono dei classici che vanno letti. Punto.

LIBRI

UX

u/davidNerdly · 4 pointsr/web_design

Just some I like:

Dev


  • [You Don't Know Javascript (series)(]https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS). Short and sweet mostly. Well written. Some are still pending publishing but there are a couple available now. I believe you can read them for free online, I just like paper books and wanted to show some support.

  • Elequent Javascript (second release coming in november). Current version here if you are impatient. I have not personally read it yet, waiting for the next revision. I recommend it due to the high regard it has in the web community.

  • Professional JavaScript for Web Developers. Sometimes called the bible of js. Big ole book. I have not read it through and through, but have enjoyed the parts I have perused.

    Design


    (I am weak in the design side, so take these recommendation with a grain of salt. I recommend them off of overall industry cred they receive and my own personal taste for them.)

  • The Elements of Typographic Style. Low level detail into the art and science behind typography.

  • Don't Make Me Think, Revisited. I read the original, not the new one that I linked. It is an easy read (morning commute on the train was perfect for it) and covers UX stuff in a very easy to understand way. My non-designer brain really appreciated it.

    below are books I have not read but our generally recommended to people asking this question

  • About Face.

  • The Design of Everyday Things.

  • The Inmates Are Running the Asylum.


    You can see a lot of these are theory based. My 0.02 is that books are good for theory, blogs are good for up to date ways of doing things and tutorial type stuff.

    Hope this helps!


    Battery is about to die so no formatting for you! I'll add note later if I remember.

    EDIT: another real quick.

    EDIT2: Eh, wound up on my computer. Added formatting and some context. Also added more links because I am procrastinating my actual work I have to do (picking icons for buttons is so hard, I never know what icon accurately represents whatever context I am trying to fill).
u/iamktothed · 4 pointsr/Design

Interaction Design

u/meowris · 3 pointsr/learnprogramming

Junior UX person here. Not much of a programmer myself, but it's sufficient for my needs, as I am only doing front-end design when I dabble with code. There is a multitude of ways to learn how to code, but generally speaking, I find that practicing in small repetition helps the best to retain and absorb information. When you are doing a small code example, try to rewrite differently and see how it works in each of those ways. I also recommend coming up with a small project that you can work on (design and putting a personal site live, for example), as opposed just doing the practices, that way you are presented with a real world environment that contains restrictions and possibilities.

Do you draw? It might help to learn how to draw well, which will help you illustrate designs and potentially become a fun hobby.

Some beginner level books I recommend:

u/markertheshark · 3 pointsr/web_design

I've recently read Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug and it was pretty great

u/Yulfy · 3 pointsr/AskProgramming

It looks like there's an updated version released in 2013. This is the kind of book I was looking for, thanks :)

u/Himekat · 3 pointsr/cscareerquestions

Non-fiction:

  • The Design of Everyday Things -- not about programming, but a great resource in general for viewing things from a design perspective, and it was required reading in my CS curriculum.
  • Don't Make Me Think -- another design-oriented book about web usability. It's quite a quick read since it's mostly pictures.

    Fiction:

  • Sourdough -- it's a fun whimsical story about Silicon Valley, programming, and baking bread. Very quick, light read.
u/Chris_Misterek · 3 pointsr/userexperience

Have you looked through

u/LinguoIsDead · 3 pointsr/web_design

Thanks for the reply! I can safely say I would like to focus on web/digital. I've started collecting/bookmarking resources to the principles you mentioned but is there any particular path you would recommend? I don't mind throwing down some money for a learning resource (such as Lynda) and some books. My current list of books I have in my cart:

u/metasophie · 3 pointsr/userexperience

> Why do people use Sketch more over PS?

Sketch is light weight, easy to use, and largely focused built. PS is a generic image editing tool that isn't.

Don't get caught up in tools though. UXD is a process not a toolset competency.

> Do you guys have any beginner friendly tutorials for a material or flat design interface?

A large chunk of user experience design comes from interaction design which inherits a sizeable chunk from anthropology. So, instead of starting you off on a tutorial which will likely focus you on technology as the process I'd rather start you off with reading.

Plans and Situated Actions - Lucy and other researchers at XEROX Parc defined Interaction Design. This is the birthplace of the idea.

https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Plans_and_Situated_Actions.html?id=AJ_eBJtHxmsC&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y

Lucy Suchman again - Human-Machine Reconfiguration talks about a higher level of thinking when it comes to how people interact with machines.

https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Human_Machine_Reconfigurations.html?id=KES20V7aP4YC&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y

Alan Cooper is one of the early leaders in Interaction Design. In this book he goes over the 101 of user research and how it has been applied in digital technologies.

https://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Essentials-Interaction-Design/dp/0470084111

Love him or hate him Donald Norman helped define early Usability and the transition to Interaction design.

https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/1452654123

Don't make me think. Was one of the definitive books highlighting the approach of user centred design.

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TN8VJJHK9NKZ1KAA10V5

After you get through all of that I recommend that you spend some time in whatever tool you think works for you and then replicate somebody else's design. Say there's a mobile app (choose a small app) that you use all the time. Replicate every single screen and document with a flow chart how you interact with it to get to every single screen. Break them all up into individual interactions.

Make sure that you design it in the most reusable way possible. If your tool lets you make your own widgets then use them. If your tool allows you to inherit multiple layers, like Axure, then use that too.

Now find some people and test with them. Do some User Testing on the product to find flaws. Do some high level User Research to find out what their core goals are. Iterate. Don't forget that you're an amateur, it's okay to reuse your friend base.

u/blixxurd · 3 pointsr/webdev

As an ex-data guy myself (Started to do primarily UI Dev a few years back) Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think" was a godsend. It can be learned, and while creativity plays a role, there are formulas to it. With some time, it will be second nature.

Book: http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515

u/xiongchiamiov · 3 pointsr/webdev

I'm almost finished with the book, and boy, it's great.

While we're making book suggestions, I also highly highly recommend picking up a copy of Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think. It's important to remember, when delving into design, that it's not just about making things pretty - you need to make them functional, too.

u/duotoner · 3 pointsr/web_design

A Word of Caution on Inspiration Galleries

Seeking inspiration (ideas) is perfectly acceptable, but it must be done so cautiously. Too often, people fall into the trap of simply copying the sources of inspiration because it looked nice.

Instead, it's helpful to study the source of inspiration. Which components are interesting? Why were they used? What problem was the designer attempting to solve with them? Once you understand why those components were used, then you are better positioned to decide if they help solve your design problem.

It's also helpful to remember that no two design problems are the same. Sure, you're a bank and we're a bank, but we have different needs, target different audiences, have different value propositions, different brands, and so on. Thus, our design solutions will necessarily differ.

Some Helpful Resources

As for helpful resources, I would start with a video from Flint McGlaughlin on the inverted marketing funnel. You're probably already familiar with the funnel concept from marketing, but he describes it as fulfilling a sequence of "micro yes" points. If you have a good understanding of how the user moves through these "micro yes" moments, then it can help you decide where to choose and place elements on a page. For example, should your call-to-action be above the fold? Do you need pictures? Are stock photos okay? And so on.

Going more in-depth, I would recommend looking to The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett. You can find lecture videos from him on YouTube covering the ideas.

Another book on the essential reading list is Don't Make Me Think, Revisited by Steve Krug. It's a fantastic book on usability and user experience.

For a slightly more graphic design bent, although still applicable, I would recommend The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams. It will help you understand the basic components of graphic design which can be applied to web design.

What all these resources do is give you a basic framework through which you can make better design decisions.

Design is fundamentally about problem solving. You are not creating a design simply for the sake of the "design." You are creating a design to accomplish some goal. This is true of graphic designer, web design, user experience design, interaction design, and even industrial design.

u/too_much_to_do · 3 pointsr/startups

Great points. I remember reading "Don't Make Me Think" when I was in school and it was invaluable to me when doing user testing. It's focused on web UI etc but I think the lessons carry over.

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=don%27t+make+me+think&qid=1558558875&s=gateway&sr=8-2

u/TonySu · 3 pointsr/learnprogramming

Not a website designer, never designed a full website, but recently read Don't make me think. Though I was reading it for ideas in general usability, it's focussed towards websites. It's a pretty short book that you can pretty casually get through in a few afternoons.

Styles and schemes are easy to change, making a robust and usable website should be top priority.

u/thedaian · 3 pointsr/gamedev

Look up The Design of Everyday Things and Don't Make Me Think.

The first book is mostly about physical objects, and the second book is mostly about websites, but both cover UX fundamentals, and they're basically the essential UX books. That knowledge can pretty easily be applied to games.

Beyond that, the other important thing is just to run your game through testing sessions. Ideally, get someone who hasn't touched your game before, and watch them play it. For best results, record the entire play session on camera, and in game, and watch what they're doing in real life and in game. Recording all of that can be tough, and possibly expensive if you're paying your testers, but you might be able to find a local gamedev group and bring your game there.

u/albinotonnina · 3 pointsr/reactjs

Hi! Thanks for your reply! Good point!
I disagree on that UX rule. This is based on my readings.
Main source: Steve Crug - Don't make me think
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TDYRVK2QDQRXX3QZ77ZS

Or this post:
https://ux.stackexchange.com/a/40446/102854

So yes, I'm trading clicks for layout simplicity.

"Navigation should get the user where they need to go, with clear, well-defined paths and decision points"

This thing is more about this.

About the cues from small devices well yes, we prefer larger screens I definitely agree with you. But are we on our mobile a lot?
Do you feel that the tapping and the scrolling became sort of natural for all of us? Do you have this general sense of people preferring mobile apps to the more traditional web apps for desktop?
I'm trying to investigate on a mixed approach maybe? A lot of real estate and the simplicity of mobile navigation.

Also as a developer I can see in this technique some advantages, code wise. It's very easy to build apps like this.
You can create enormous quantities of user flows with little effort, not having to do a lot of layouting. It's easy to prototype or reiterate. Users also can basically create their own paths.

Obviously all this may be valid or not. It's experimentation, at least for me.

I have the luxury to try this technique on a product at work, I hope I'm going to test this soon.

Thank you for your comment! Let's discuss more if you want!

u/offwithyourtv · 3 pointsr/userexperience

This probably isn't the most helpful answer, but any resources I might have used to learn the fundamentals myself are probably pretty outdated now. Honestly I'd just try to find highly rated books on Amazon that are reasonably priced. I haven't read this one for psych research methods, but looking through the table of contents, it covers a lot of what I'd expect (ethics, validity and reliability, study design and common methods) and according to the reviews it's clear, concise, and has good stats info in the appendix. I had a similar "handbook" style textbook in undergrad that I liked. For practicing stats, I'm personally more of a learn-by-doing kind of person, and there are some free courses out there like this one from Khan Academy that covers the basics fairly well.

But if you can, take courses in college as electives! Chances are you'll have a few to fill (or maybe audit some if you can't get credit), so go outside of HCDE's offerings to get some complementary skills in research or design. I usually find classrooms to be more engaging than trying to get through a textbook at home on my own, and especially for psych research methods, you'll probably have a project that gives you hands-on experience doing research with human subjects (most likely your peers). There are lots of free online courses out there as well if you aren't able to take them for credit.

You guys are making me miss school.

Getting specifically into UX self-study, in addition to a UX-specific research methods book (this is a newer version of one I read in school) I'd also go through the UX classics like Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design, Krug's Don't Make Me Think, and Casey's Set Phasers on Stun (this last one being more of a fun read than a practical one).

u/HadleyRay · 3 pointsr/web_design

Personally, I liked Learning Web Design 4th ed.. It gives you a nice overview of everything you're going to work with on the front-end.

Duckett's book is good and easy to read, but as far as learning, it didn't do it for me--you may be different.

You would also be well-served to learn some design theory. Don't Make Me Think is probably the penultimate in this area. Design for Hackers is also very good.

Learning jQuery is also a must. Code School has a great jQuery course.

Like /u/ijurachi said, a scripting language like PHP or Ruby on Rails would be a next step after that.

u/isperg · 3 pointsr/web_design

I have a few clients on retainer that share the same traits as your boss, and oddible is giving some salient points.

An organization I work with now had no process or standard operating procedures in place for anything tech or branding related. What brought the focus away from how the front-end looks like and on track with what and why, was asking foundational questions and getting stakeholders to think through why we're putting content there and the goals we're trying to achieve. Doing so brought everyone into the same boat and the reasoning for design decisions were recognized by the group; they needed to have insight and own the design decisions I already figured out. They were then open to the process of problem solving and being open to my recommendations for moving forward with achieving goals because they were right there with me during each step of the design process (whatever that is) and realized that my experience enables them to worry about the what and why and lets me figure out the how (including better design practices that get users to accomplish what your client wants them to, while addressing their business goals). I've written up documentation on how we handle branding, standard operating procedure for website related stuff, and helped a few other staff members re-write their job responsibilities within their contracts since I've gotten there.

For your boss, maybe you can stress the time inefficiency and cost he's incurring with the current method of edit requests. Even though you can make instant updates, doing so bit by bit is not as effective or timely as batch updates and it's probably sucking up your time's bandwidth with other tasks.

Sketches, even MSPaint, are mediums of information. Your boss sounds like he is communicating to you what he wants done, and you have to do it. Steering them towards problem solving and answering "what are we trying to accomplish here, on this page?" and proposing your recommendations may help change the type of feedback you're getting. If your boss is actively reducing the effectiveness and value of the experience of pages, you should communicate that to them and offer what you think should be done based on your experience and web standards and most importantly your reasoning behind why you recommend those options and the expected result from them.

Ultimately, if your boss keeps overriding you than you have to do what they tell you to do. You can try and put some process in place, but if you've already demonstrated that you can make an instant edit to someone who doesn't understand ux/webdev than you've opened a can of worms to someone who thinks you're a wizard that can do anything (regardless of the complexity) as fast as you've done other edits.

oddible's comment in regards to mockups "iterate, list assumptions they make, formulate hypotheses to validate, do research, compile and present data" seems to be addressing the process you're using and where mockups are within that process. Usually, a process (whatever that is) takes into account clients having dozens of minor edits by listing out the goals of the request, establishing the user groups who will interact with the experience, and the desired result; then creating a mockup of sorts to get feedback, then confirming before executing. If the client is requesting edits after the mockup is confirmed repeatedly, there's something wrong with your process; either the client isn't thinking through all the requirements of the request, you're not, or both of you are not.

As for raging anonymously on the internet: /s how dare someone point out possible useful criticism based on the information you provided. This shit is common to come across with clients, and shutting someone down who shows experience within their direct feedback to you is a selfish dick move; especially this "disrespect" nonsense. Get over it, don't take stuff personally because it's not an assault on you, web design is about the client's goals and needs not about you and how you feel about their design. Respect is earned with the amount of money your work/portfolio earns you and if you're hating your role now you'll despise working at a larger company with a senior webdev or ux role because it's filled with people like your boss everywhere, but processes are in place to avoid wasted time and micromanaging. The most successful IT professionals are likable, charismatic, and know how to get desired outcomes from social interactions; tech skill sets are secondary.

How to tell your boss to stop?
Here's a great book with strategies, tactics, methods, and tools for UX design that show you multiple processes to get from request to execution: https://www.amazon.com/Project-Guide-Design-experience-designers/dp/0321815386 maybe some processes in that book could help add a structure that prevents the current situation you're in now, and figure out how to iterate requests before you've already executed stuff.

How to tell your boss to stop directly? Give him this book and tell him that he needs to read it so he's speaking the same language you are: https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515

u/CaptainMegaJuice · 3 pointsr/design_critiques

This site is completely unusable. Read "Don't Make Me Think" before ever making another website.

u/squidboots · 3 pointsr/Etsy

Collections or Categories, it doesn't really matter - what matters is that A) you're consistent, and B) they are self-evident (clear). In other words, you need to endeavor so that a customer is not going to be surprised when they click on a section. Understand that a customer is always going to have some expectation when deciding to click on a category, and that expectation will range from something as straightforward as:

"I am looking for rings, so I am clicking on the 'Rings' section and I expect to see a bunch of rings"

to

"I see 'Tree of Life' and I know that nature-y things appeal to me, so when I click on 'Tree of Life' I expect to see things that are all clearly related to one another thematically in some way AND I can clearly see why this collection is called 'Tree of Life' through the general brand/theme conveyed by this collection of products."

Therefore, in the first example if a customer clicks on 'Rings' and sees some rings as well as bracelets and necklaces....that customer is surprised. Pretty straightforward. In the second example, if a customer clicks on 'Tree of Life' and sees a bunch of jewelry that really doesn't look like it's thematically tied together in some way AND/OR that jewelry is really not conveying the theme (maybe it's all industrial/steampunk stuff) - that customer is surprised. Surprise comes from when expectations are not met, and in this case customers being surprised will lead to disappointment and frustration. Having consistency and clarity will reduce customer confusion/frustration, and that will keep curious customers from bailing out of your store.

That said, as demonstrated above, it is generally much easier to be both consistent and self-evident with Categories, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is better. As you rightly point out, if you have a strong brand that resonates with your customers, the Collections approach can actually be a pretty powerful way to expose your products to your customer and snag sales you otherwise wouldn't have. It just takes a lot more work to maintain consistency and clarity with Collections because it depends on having strong, clear branding. With that in mind, I think if you go the Collections route you really, really, really need to be very careful and deliberate about it in order to maintain consistency and clarity - but if you do it right, you will go farrrrrr.

As an aside, I strongly recommend the book "Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability" by Steve Krug. It was originally intended to teach user experience and human-centered design principles to web designers, but honestly it's one of the best damn books out there for anyone trying to convey information of any kind on the internet. It's short and awesome and the world would be a better place if more people read it and practiced its principles.

u/black-tie · 3 pointsr/Design

On typography:

u/eaz135 · 2 pointsr/simpleios

I think adding a reading list to this would be a good idea:
For intermediate iOS developers looking to take things to the next level I would recommend at least the following:

u/stimtowin · 2 pointsr/design_critiques

Hey letmethinkabit,

I'd like to throw in my $0.02 from a usability perspective in regards to the "continue" modal that your_gay_uncle touched upon. More specifically, the last segment where you point out where the menu button is.

If you have to tell your users where something as critical as the menu is(and telling them with words to boot), you are doing usability wrong.

There's a highly regarded book on usability that I recommend you read(it's short, just under 200 pages), called "Don't Make Me Think!" by Steve Krug. Here's a non-referral Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321965515

Here's an excerpt from Chapter 1 that pertains directly to what you're doing with that "here's the menu" dialogue:

> Don't make me think!

> For as long [as] I can remember, I've been telling people that this is my first law of usability.

> It's the overriding principle---the ultimate tie breaker when deciding whether a design works or it doesn't. If you have room in your head for only one usability rule, make this the one.

> For instance, it means that as far as is humanly possible, when I look at a Web page it should be self-evident. Obvious. Self-explanatory.

> I should be able to "get it"---what it is and how to use it---without expending any effort thinking about it.

> (Krug 11)

Also note that people do not like to read. Especially when they're visiting your website. So I would cut probably that entire modal popup segment, maybe you could tuck that information somewhere else like an 'About' page where people who are looking for it can find it, rather than assaulting all of your visitors with it. Try to think of your user experience from the other side of the table; something broke and you need an IT company to fix it. When you visit this hitechwolf site, you are immediately confronted with a lot of reading that you have to do. You have failed to convey any sort of value within the initial landing, and most people will probably just hit the back button. Even more so if they happen to press 'continue' once, and they are not allowed to continue(because your modal has three segments.)

Another usability note, for your six panel buttons on the bottom half of the page: make the text that appears on hover display even when not hovering. Your users shouldn't have to interact with something to figure out what it does. Here are some good ideas for progressive enhancements on hover:

http://tympanus.net/Development/HoverEffectIdeas/

Good luck and don't stop, design is hard!

u/jeffderek · 2 pointsr/crestron

Agree completely on Design of Everyday Things and 100 Things Every Designer Needs. They're both top tier books.

I also enjoy Don't Make Me Think, which is a web design book and has a lot of stuff that doesn't apply to touchpanels, but it espouses a method of looking at your design that I have found very useful for touchpanel design as well.

u/SlashLes · 2 pointsr/graphic_design

Crap, its coming out on 30th of December :(

u/chromarush · 2 pointsr/userexperience

I am self taught and design applications for human and system workflows at a Internet security company. I am biased but I don't think a degree will necessarily give you more hands on skills than just finding projects and building a portfolio to show your skills. There are many many different niche categories, every UX professional I have met have different skill sets. For example I tend in a version of lean UX which includes need finding, requirements validation, user testing, workflow analysis, system design, prototyping, analytics, and accessibility design (not in that order). I am interlocked with the engineering team so my job is FAR different than many UX professionals I know who work with marketing teams. They tend to specialize very deeply in research, prototyping, user testing, and analytics. Some UX types code and some use prototyping tools like Balsamiq, UXpin, Adobe etc. There is heavy debate on which path is more useful/safe/ relevant. Where I work I do not get time to code because my team and I feel I provide the best value to our engineering team and internal/external customers by doing the items listed above. The other UX person I will work with me on similar activities but then may be given projects to look at the best options for reusable components and code them up for testing.

TLDR:

u/wes321 · 2 pointsr/Entrepreneur

The two books I'd recommend are Founders at Work
and Don't Make Me Think . even though this is more on the technical side it's an amazing book about user experience which most entrepreneurs should try to master :)

"Behind the scenes" meaning stories that aren't fabricated to make good TV but to give the viewer a better understanding of what goes on behind a product / website. TED talks are great with that so I'd highly recommend watching these https://www.ted.com/talks?sort=newest&topics%5B%5D=entrepreneur

The more dramatic but easy to keep in the background type shows are

u/AlSweigart · 2 pointsr/learnprogramming

Focus on UI design.

A lot of people tend to think of programming as very math-heavy (it's not, unless the domain you're writing software for is weather simulations or something that itself requires math). So we end up thinking the technical side is important and the "soft skills" are unimportant (or at least, not worth including in our study time).

I'm old enough now where I still like programming, but I've realized I don't care about code; I care about making software that people actually use and find useful. Building a tesla coil in your garage is cool, but so what tons of geeks have done that. I want to make something useful, and it doesn't matter how elegant your algorithms are if your program is confusing, unusable, or solves the wrong problem.

I'd recommend these books, in roughly this order:

u/shootathought · 2 pointsr/javascript

I did a quick search and don't see that anybody has mentioned this book before, but a UI designer friend of mine recommended this one to me when I was considering stepping from technical writing to UI design. Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. It's a short-ish book (206 pages) and well written.

​

edit: changed link to third edition.

u/cplcupcake · 2 pointsr/graphic_design

Actually there's a new version of Don't Make Me Think!

u/ijurachi · 2 pointsr/web_design

If you want to really make a career out of it and want to be good at it, prepare for a long journey. Web design is a mix of programming and graphic design. Design involves a lot more than you think and is just as, if not more tedious than programming (there's a reason why it is a 4 year degree). To start, learn about design theory, layout, the grid system, color theory, typography. Some of these topics will be tough to find online. A bit of design history wouldn't hurt either. Then look up User Experience and User Interface design. A good book to read is Dont Make me Think. Then you should start getting into HTML, CSS and Javascript for front-end design and at least one scripting language.

u/the5and10 · 2 pointsr/web_design

Off the top of my head, two books come to mind that you should check out.

Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski

Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug

u/mynameisgoose · 2 pointsr/userexperience

Get the book "Don't make me think", by Steve Krug.

It's a book all about usability. Naturally, given the subject matter, the book itself is a very easy read. It's a good basis for the principles of what make up a great user experience.

UX and UI go hand in hand, however like web design and SEO, they can be a whole discipline all by themselves.

If you want to focus on the design side, really sharpen your prototyping abilities with tools like Axure, as you've mentioned or Sketch. Play with Adobe XD preview, because I'm sure that will end up having a huge impact later down the road and will get you ahead of the curve. Start thinking about on-site interactions (i.e. how buttons should act when clicked, transitions, etc.)

If you want to be on the UX side of the coin, I would still learn Axure and prototyping tools, but mostly for wire framing. I would then study on usability testing and how to gather site data. It will become very important in this type of role to understand how site statistics and user actions affect your conversion rate (in regards to whatever your site's call to action is).

I mean...absolutely do all you can to learn both UX/UI, but in a lot of companies, your designers will be separate from your analysts. You might want to consider what you want to spend the bulk of your time doing later down the road and sharpen that facet as much as you can.

Being solo is tough...I'd honestly try to learn what you can in that role and on your own then move on to a place that can facilitate further growth.

Good luck, OP.

u/an_ennui · 2 pointsr/design_critiques

Thanks so much for writing that Medium article and being open about your findings. This is an invaluable resource and something I’ll refer to in the future. The world needs more transparent heroes like you. It reminds me a little bit of this article I read a while back about all the “secret sauce” that goes into a successful product beyond simply design + development, from the perspective of a failed entrepreneur.

While it looks like you marketed somewhat, you may have not marketed quite enough—featured Tweets, Facebook posts—to your target demo. So that’s one guess.

> I think many users in the app creation space are very conscious of design, and may be dissuaded because of that.

Asking designers what’s wrong with my product? will always give you the obvious answer: your design could be improved. Which, for the record, you should always translate in your head to: As a designer, I would design that differently—not necessarily better or worse—just…differently. However, considering you’ve built a design tool for designers, that’s a very likely possibility not to be ruled out. For someone familiar with Sketch, e.g. the UI is very complicated and off-putting, yet doesn’t have basic operations such as alignment / distribution. A minor point is that the visual style of the elements are less appealing than both iOS’ and Android’s design, but as you said, that’s an easy fix.

It’s apparent how much work you’ve put into this, and I’d like to see this succeed. I’d also like to think the issues are solvable with a little design and UX TLC (ironically, yes—the marketing site’s UX for UX-App is somewhat lacking in communicating what the app does before signing up).

Anyway, I would suggest 2 things:

  1. Hiring an experienced UI designer to redesign the marketing site layout and app UI (not merely paying for consultation; there’s too much to address even for a formal consultation)
  2. Conducting in-person user testing to get the real user feedback you need. Chapter 9 in Don’t Make Me Think has the best, cheapest, most effective intro to user testing I’ve run across. If you follow that chapter (and book) you can’t go wrong.
u/reddilada · 2 pointsr/learnprogramming

Not a web developer but these books are mentioned often:

The Design of Everyday Things
Don't Make Me Think

u/goldbond_on_my_plums · 2 pointsr/web_design
u/octopi-me · 2 pointsr/userexperience

Sorry to hear that! I struggle with buy-in of the same things as a UX designer, so trust me it's not just you.

First struggle is with internal projects, they are typically a rocky road and hard to get finished so keep that in mind and don't beat yourself up. On a positive note, glad you are noticing that UX is needed!

Next you need to get buy-in from others in your company. Let them know that spending strategic/design hours upfront solving problems will save loads of money in the end by reducing development time and customer retention. Find some case studies or do some on your own for example. maybe offer some A/B testing of the current product to show them how a users experience and drive revenue/conversions.

For you, Id suggest a good place to start (if you haven't already) is reading Steve Krug's book titled "Don't make me think" (revised edition). https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515

This will help frame your mindset around user centered design. Also wouldn't hurt to read Nielson Norman Group's 10 Heuristics for User Interface Design - https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/

These are foundation pieces every UX designer/User Centered developer should know.

Hope that helps!

u/_its_a_SWEATER_ · 2 pointsr/startups

Don't Make Me Think for anything needing a UI, and general Customer Experience.

u/Xacto01 · 1 pointr/web_design

Don't Make Me Think. This is the 3rd edition. I read the 2nd edition and it is still applicable today. I would assume the 3rd edition would be just as good.

u/bluelite · 1 pointr/learnprogramming

The book Don't Make Me Think is a great, lightweight introduction to UI design and testing. There are no magic formulas; that is, it's impossible to state that "if your UI does X, Y, and Z, it'll be great!." But there are guidelines that you ought to follow--or consciously ignore.

Your UI is good if the majority of users can navigate it without asking for help of giving up. Start by testing your UI designs on a few friends. Give them some tasks to do. If they can accomplish the tasks, you're on the right track. If not, re-design and test again.

u/AnalyzeAllTheLogs · 1 pointr/web_design

I'd change the headline to a display typeface.

I prefer light, i'd be interesting if you just had a button to switch the theme from light/dark; probably upper right corner.

I'd lose the '10,000' dollar bit, seems gimmicky.

I'd be more interested in how they use the site: Useability testing book-> Don't Make Me Think

Edit: i'd do a bold on the text within the options and a slightly heavier stroke on the inactive buttons. I'd also condense the spacing between options just a bit, while making the first row of options after a question slightly more together (proportionally). It helps with visual grouping and relatedness; besides not having too much white space.

u/tmartlolz · 1 pointr/web_design

Are they really any courses that are 'reputable' in the way that a potential employer cares about? I don't think so. Read some books, practice building and structuring UI without bootstrap, build a portfolio you're proud of. Don't Make Me Think is pretty good.

u/foodporncess · 1 pointr/IAmA

This is kind of the "bible" for UX: Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug

This is another good one, particularly in the software design field: Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience

And then these websites are great:
Boxes and Arrows
User Interface Engineering
Nielsen Norman Group
UX Mag
UX Matters

u/Cobalt_Genie · 1 pointr/Design

interesting.

So do you recommend any books on this subject? I'm trying to get a better handle on typical user flows and use cases…

Anyone read Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug?

I was thinking of picking this up.

u/[deleted] · 1 pointr/learnprogramming

Nothing too related to Android/iOS specifically, but...

u/surpriseslingshot · 1 pointr/graphic_design

Hey dude! I want to send you a huge long explanation I did a while ago about Wacom tablets (which are "industry standard") that didn't get much love in the original post, but I put a lot of work into figuring everything out for this dude so I thought I'd share it again.

Before I paste in my response to this question someone posted, I wanted to mention a few things about your unique situation.

When starting out in design, it's probably more important to invest in a mouse, the Creative Cloud Suite, and some sketching supplies. I use my tablet all the time, but in my classes only about half of the people use tablets. Everyone else gets by just fine (even in illustration) with a mouse. Trackpads are asses to work with, and a good sketchbook, a set of Micron pens, a nice .5 mechanical pencil and some Prismacolor pens are gonna do you a lot more help than a tablet, especially if you're just starting out in classes. Other supplies you might need include a T-Square, a right angle measure (is that what they're called?), a good X-acto knife and a bunch of blades, a good ruler, some tracing paper, and a case to carry it all around. Oh and a portfolio (one of the cloth ones so you can carry your print work around).

If you're specifically looking at web design, i'd invest in a couple amazon books like this book and this book

In terms of graphic tablets, I'm posting an explanation of all the ones available right now. The person for whom I was originally responding was looking to buy one as a gift for, I think, their SO who was primarily a photographer using Photoshop. And just as I post at the bottom of the quoted message, feel free to PM me if you have other questions about anything that I've mentioned here :) Good luck OP, and sorry for the wall of text!

> First off, it's much easier to navigate the different models via the actual wacom site[1] . Here's a breakdown of Wacom tablets:
Almost all wacom tablets come in different sizes. Typically they are small, medium, and large. Very simple, it just dictates how large the tablet is. On the other hand, it also dictates the ratio of calibration to the screen. Let's pretend that your tablet is 4"x5" and your screen is 8"x15" (for the sake of an example, ignore the absurd dimensions). Since every point on the tablet is directly calibrated to a point on your screen, it'll take 1.5 times longer for your cursor to travel horizontally than it will vertically. Not an issue, but it makes the learning curve for using a tablet a little steeper because you have to learn how to change your hand-eye coordination from 1:1 to 2:3.
Ok so about the different models: Bamboo is an older model that is no longer sold. Now they have Intuos Pro and just plain old Intuos. Bamboo is great, fine, wonderful even, but as time goes on it'll be harder to find replacement stuff (like pens, which I have lost once or twice) for the tablet itself.
Now, in the plain old (newest) intuos family, you've got Draw, Art, Photo, and Comic. Draw, the cheapest one, is not a touch tablet. It won't respond to your fingers on it, just the stylus. The rest are all touch tablets too. All four are considered "small". Draw is the bare minimum. Nothing special comes with it. Next level up, you've got Art. Art is touch sensitive and comes with Coral Painter. Next one (Photo) comes with Tonality Pro, Intensify Pro, Snapheal Pro, Noiseless Pro (and I know nothing about what each program does). Then Comic comes with Clip Studio Paint Pro and Anime Studio® Debut 10 (again with the not knowing what it is).
Next up You've got the Intuos Pro, which is what I use (i'm a senior design student with four years of professional design experience, to put it in perspective I do a lot of illustration and I'm very happy with my Intuos Pro). There's really nothing too complex about these, there's small, medium, and large. That's really the only difference among them.
In terms of which one to get, here's my thoughts. The Intuos Pro family is great, but if he's only editing photos then it might not be worth it to get the more expensive tablet. The bamboo tablets are adorable and easy to bring around, but they jack up the price for absurd programs that you most definitely don't need (Adobe suite is standard in the industry. While he sounds like he's only working with Photoshop, if he ever needs to share a file with someone who doesn't have the programs that come with the tablet, they'll also have to own the software in order to read the files).
I have an older generation Intuos Pro that does not have touch-capabilities. It's fine, I have learned key commands to compensate for my inability to quickly zoom and move around artboards, etc. If you're trying to save money, go for the Intuos Draw. It's a great starter, and within the next year-and-a-half to two years he'll probably upgrade. Or you can drop a hot dollar on the Intuos Pro family and kinda bite the bullet. I started out with a bamboo (back in 2007!) and used it until I came to college. I got an Intuos Pro, loved it to bits, and lost the stylus. For about 8 months I was too lazy to buy an $80 new stylus so I used my 2007 bamboo for all my work, and it went fine! I have since sold my little baby bamboo, but it served me well for a long, long time. The only problem is that the appeal of a new toy is sometimes greater than the practicality and logic of playing with an old one.
Best of luck! Let me know if you have any other questions...

u/sachio222 · 1 pointr/userexperience

hmm. Where to get started. Learn the gestalt principles of visual design. If you're designing interfaces - these little tips will help you associate, and differentiate well enough to be able to direct attention like a conductor.

Learn to do everything deliberately. If you don't have a reason for something, you're not designing, you're arting. Know the difference and when each is appropriate. For example - want a big splash screen with a fancy colorful image? Is it so you can attract the user to a particular part of the screen? Or is it because you have some extra space and feel like filling it with something. If it's the former, go for it. If it's the latter - you're just making an art project.

Learn about design methodologies, from a university if possible. Industrial design technique is very good for digital problem solving as well. Defining a problem, exploring solutions, and determining a valuable path are things that will help you in every project.

Understand why you are doing what you are doing. And who are you doing it for. Never go past page one without establishing those facts.

Stats will help you in that do everything intentionally part. If you can say 80 of people do this, 20 percent of people do that, you can from this say, that this gets center position, bright colors, dark shadow and lots of negative space. That thing that 20 percent of people do, gets bottom right, lowER contrast, and is there for people that expect it.

Good luck, conferences will help. Podcasts will help. Reading interviews from design teams at larger companies will help.

Asking reddit will help. What you should ask for is paid time off to study lol. Good luck.


edit:
Also get this book universal principles of design I think there's a pocket version. This teaches you what works and why and when to use it.


Get the design of every day things. This book teaches you what good design is. It asks the questions - what is design. When is design good. What is an affordance? How do we signal what things do what? How does all that work? Is a coffee cup good design? What about a scissors? How about google.com vs yahoo.com...

Check out don't make me think... or just think about the title for an hour and pretend you read the book.

a popular one now is hooked. Pavlov's dog experiments except with people, basically operant conditioning for designers.

And learn about grid systems and bootstrap for prototyping. Get a prototyping account. For something, proto.io, invision, framerjs.... Invest in omingraffle and sketch, get a creative cloud license if need be. You will need to show people things a lot. You will need to convince people of your ideas and your paths. You will need to constantly throw together quick and dirty visualizations of what you want to say. Invest in tools that make it simple.

Learn how to sell your ideas. You will be asked a ton of questions as people poke holes in your design. You need to figure out how to soothe their worries. They will your decisions, and you will have to show them that you have the answer. Learn how to present. Learn public speaking. Learn how to communicate with superiors. Learn how to talk with programmers. Learn how to give the programmers what they want from you. Learn how to negotiate, learn how to deliver on time. Learn how to handle stress.

Good luck.

u/tetractys_gnosys · 1 pointr/Wordpress

I've been teaching myself to make websites for a few years now and I've done random site maintenance for a firm and done a build with a larger firm's team and the whole time I was struggling to comprehend what was being thrown my way. It can be scary because there's so much ground to cover initially, to get a working understanding of front end and back end technologies, and because you're having to learn to build a house on quick sand, it seems.

It is incredibly difficult getting all the pieces together to see the big picture at first; I still don't have the entire picture. I do have enough to know generally what to look for, how to search for answers, and have a decent enough understanding of JS, PHP, and MySQL to know how to get stuck. As long as you can get yourself stuck, you're on the right track. Even the best developers get stuck; it's part of the trade and an integral part of development and programming because it is a creative kind of work through a rational and logical framework. You get sometimes bizarre or infuriating issues and you have unlimited ways to solve them so you slam a quad latte, put on some death metal (or your preferred tunage) and treat it like puzzles that you're getting paid for (hopefully). Just remember that you're never going to stop learning, refining what and how you do things. Always be learning, always be flexible, and always remember that it is a multi-faceted beast and if you end up not grooving with front end (HTML, templates, CSS, JS, whathaveyou) you can go back end. Or focus on UI/UX, testing, project management, design, or anything else you can think of.

As far as resources, I have a shit ton of bookmarks in Chrome as well as several ebooks and physical books. I'd be thrilled to share and talk to you about any of it. I definitely learn by teaching among other methods and I've never had any developer friends to learn with or bounce things off of so hit me up if you're into that kind of thing. Learn the basics by doing the Web track on CodeAcademy, play around on Codepen, read Don't Make Me Think, and read The Wordpress Anthology and go through some Youtube tutorials for making custom themes and extending the CMS using Wordpress functions and technology.

Also:

u/SquareBottle · 1 pointr/Pathfinder_RPG

Thanks for responding and for listening to my feature requests!

For #2, what I mean is going from this:

> [Link to AoN] [Feat name] [Toggle to show and hide the feat tree]

to this:

> [Toggle] [Link] [Feat name]

This small change would improve the UX by making it easier and faster for users to explore feat trees.

Currently, the user has to do a mental calculation to find each toggle. Not a demanding task, but a task nonetheless. Moving the toggle to the left will get rid of this, bringing you a step closer to Don't Make Me Think levels of comfort.

It also would dramatically reduce the amount of mouse travel needed to get from one toggle to the next, which is another one of those tiny frustrations that add up (especially for people using trackpads).

And please note that my suggestions aren't meant to fix UX problems so much as improve what's already good. I'm an interaction designer, so just let me know if I can be helpful as such.

u/Echohawkdown · 1 pointr/design_critiques

I'd strongly recommend you study Swiss Style/Swiss Design through Google. Most of the issues I have with your design, which is echoed others, is that your site's design has too much stuff going on that distracts the eye.

Modern digital design, which is heavily based off of Swiss Style/Swiss Design, focuses on using transitions (e.g., blue background area to white background area) for borders, sans-serif typefaces, repetitive elements (objects which behave/function similarly should look the same; applies to static menus as well as interactive objects), and other principles, all with the express goal of focusing on the message/letting it "breathe". In short, "Don't Make Me Think".^^1

Here's some primers I found on the topic:

Tons of Posters - note the general lack of explicit borders; instead, color changes mark object borders
More in-depth discussion of the history of Swiss Design (also has a ton of posters)

Some more modern sites that I feel would act as good guidelines for the kind of data you're laying out:

TicketLeap
Genymotion - More memory efficient Android emulator; more applicable since it has mockups of software
ProjectPsync - site of /u/Psyncitup; more applicable since it has mockups of software

Another point I want to make - your logo is cute, but has too many colors and looks extremely angular. See if you can clean it up or make it clearer what you do - logos carry a lot of visual weight AND brand recognition, and though it won't break a website (particularly one made as a hobby), it can easily change how it's perceived.

Last point - all those resources I just used don't just apply to web design; some of it will also carry over to your software development as well. Keep that in mind, because there's very few people who are good at both developing and designing.

 

^^1 Been a while since I've read it, but there's a book out there by the same name ("Don't Make Me Think") which was, at the time, treated as the bible/guidebook of web design. It's just been updated this year, so I can't vouch for this newest version, but the second edition is just as good, despite being published in the early '00s.

u/patrickcoombe · 1 pointr/bigseo

here is my recommendation on how to learn technical SEO (assuming you already mastered using a computer)

  • Start by learning basic HTML, CSS and Javascript. I'd also recommend codecademy for this. Build a basic website with a few features. Focus learning on responsive web development.

  • Once you've gained an intermediate familiarity with all 3 of those, I'd recommend learning another advanced language. PHP / Python come to mind right away but you can get away with learning just bash.

  • Study databases and pick one to learn such as SQL / MySQL

  • Install a Linux server from top to bottom on a local machine, and learn enough Linux to make programs, edit server configuration files, optimize servers, local and remote filesystems, ssh, etc. Focus on Apache (web servers), response codes, optimization, etc.

  • check out the book .htaccess made easy on Amazon.

  • Learn about DNS / Bind - also practice by learning dig, nslookup, purchase a domain name, edit and fwd nameservers, etc.

  • Start studying the principles of UX (user experience) and check out Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability.

  • Fully digest Google's webmaster guidelines, and Bing's while you are at it.

  • Learn to use and administer an eCommerce and CMS framework. My suggestion is WordPress and Magento.

  • Read my complete guide to on-page SEO.

  • Pick an analytics platform (I use Piwik) but the popular choice is Google Analytics.

  • Learn the basics of regex to make your life easier.

u/bautin · 1 pointr/cscareerquestions

I have most of these books.

The Art of Computer Programming
The Art of Computer Programming is dense. It is deep. You can likely put off this one. It should be a goal to be able to get through it though.

Introduction to Algorithms
Introduction to Algorithms, I don't have it. All I know is that it does come highly recommended.

Code Complete
Code Complete is excellent. Well written, it feels a lot shorter than it is. It will get you thinking about every step of the software development process.

The Pragmatic Programmer
Another one I don't have but gets recommended time and time again.

The Mythical Man Month
The Mythical Man Month is less directly relevant. It will go over meta issues in software development.

Don't Make Me Think
Don't Make Me Think is also not about code itself, but about design. Because if no one uses your application, does it matter if you made it?

u/jacob_the_snacob · 1 pointr/u_jacob_the_snacob

> Great book for anyone that is maintaining a website for a small business or organization. Not a technical book about writing code. Gives you a clear direction and guidance about how the vast majority of users surf the net, and how to make your site easy for the majority of users. Less words, more photos, clear and obvious navigation. Great examples of both real and pretend sites that are good and bad, and why they are good or bad. -- William Sauber

----------------------------

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515

u/helion_invictus · 1 pointr/web_design

How about the revised edition that was released this year.

u/AgentXTree · 1 pointr/web_design

I was just about to recommend the same. To append more to your comment, OP can start with their playlist on UX design.

I would also recommend:

u/pairadice3007 · 1 pointr/reviewmyshopify

My gut reaction is, "OK... What is this?". Even after clicking around a bit I don't have a firm grasp on what it is your store is there for. You're selling power products but there doesn't seem to be a theme or reason for me to return.

One resource that may help you is a book called, "Don't Make Me Think". It's about how a website should be designed in such a way that someone who visits the site knows within 1-2 seconds EXACTLY what the site is about and why they should shop there.

Here's a link to the book on Amazon:

Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edition) (Voices That Matter) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321965515/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_LACMybNX1991M

u/pinkwetunderwear · 1 pointr/web_design

You want to learn HTML, CSS and JavaScript. When you have the basics covered look up some CSS pre-processors like LESS, SASS and Stylus. Then consider learning a Javascript Framework like Vue, React and Angular. I recommend trying all of them and see what you like.

For software all you'll need is a text editor, most people would recommend Visual Studio Code

When learning the basics it could be helpful with a tool like BrowserSync which will auto refresh your page after save, instead of manually having to refresh your page.

If you want to read a book I can recommend Steve Krug's: Don't Make Me Think

u/wackycrane · 1 pointr/webdev

I would like to encourage you a little and liberate you from the thought that a good designers must "be creative" (i.e., good at making things look pretty).

Form and function. Web design is primarily about function (i.e., problem solving). Form plays a lesser role and can be highly subjective. As a general principles, so long as form does not hinder function and is not needed to communicate a particular message (e.g., elegance, happiness, anger, etc.), then good-enough form is good enough.

Consider Craigslist. It's an ugly website. It's not going to win any good-looks awards. Yet, people are not leaving in droves because it solves a problem (i.e., post, search, and review classifieds) and does so well.

On the flip side, there are many beautiful websites that are functionally defective.

Good designers solve problems. If you want to learn good design, I'd recommend a few courses:

  • Graphic Design Specialization [Coursera]
  • Interaction Design Specialization [Coursera]
  • Game Design Specialization [Coursera]
  • User Experience Research and Design MicroMasters [edX]
  • Intro to the Design of Everyday Things [Udacity]

    You can take all of these courses and specializations for free. (Make sure you select the free option if that's your preference.) They will help you learn "design thinking" from three different perspectives.

    A really good book on usability (function) with wide applicability is Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug. A good book on graphic design basics is The Non-Designers Design Book by Robin Williams.

    Sadly, most web "design" books focus on teaching HTML, CSS and JavaScript rather than design, so I can't provide any good resources specifically on web design. (Maybe others can fill that void.)

    However, the benefit of approaching design from a variety of perspectives and in a variety of contexts is that it helps you learn how to "think design." Seeing design thinking play out across areas reinforces the basic design principles and practices and makes it easier to apply them to web design.

    If you are more interested in form, then I'd recommend looking into studio art classes (e.g., drawing, painting, photography, digital imaging, etc). (Alternatively, you could follow courses on YouTube for these.) While these sometimes focus more on technique, they'll help you learn how to dissect what you see. You'll learn to see objects as shapes, lines, textures, shades, hues, etc. Combine that knowledge with good technique (e.g., drawing, HTML/CSS, Photoshop, etc.), and it becomes easy to make things look nice.

    Also, don't neglect creativity. One of the best books on creativity that I've ever come across is Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People. While it's a long read, it provides you with some great tools to use to "spark" creative thought.

    Hope that helps.
u/AnonJian · 1 pointr/marketing

> If I've got to stop looking at just the features, price, design....what direction should i be looking in?

Benefits. Okay this is remedial marketing. What you should do is click the links and read what I'm spoon feeding you. Tech loves features because you can have zero users, and the feature still exists. A benefit only exists if the customer and user says it does. A benefit can only exist if users exist and a customer is willing to pay for it.

You are far ahead of me. You know what the product is.

>How do i find out if my company actually is unique in a certain aspect that the competitor isn't?

Your sales guys will give you some biased half truths. Start there.

I've linked articles. I've written out the title and author of a book in my last comment. Hint. Hint.

== More (Reading, in case that was unclear) ==


About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

A Simple Trick to Turn Features Into Benefits (and Seduce Readers to Buy!)

u/erfling · 1 pointr/AdviceAnimals

I think this applies. http://smile.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463753036&sr=8-1&keywords=dont+make+me+think

The world should teach you how to interact with it. Not that that should always be easy in a game, because that's part of the fun.

u/jmwpc · 1 pointr/learnprogramming

> An understanding of design concepts is handy, but you don't need to be able to come up with the design yourself.

I think this line really sums it up best. You are likely to be tasked with creating some mock-ups, or adding a feature after the designer(s) have more or less moved on to the next project. In the case of the former, having some basic understanding of layout and design will help you create a usable product, even if it lacks polish.For the latter, being able to interpret the existing design, and extracting a few rules from it will let you deliver something pretty close to a finished product.

Working as a contractor or as part of a small team you sometimes have to wear multiple hats. I'm mostly a backend developer, but have (and still do) work on the front-end. There are a couple of books I have read and recommend for people in that situation. Neither will make you a full-blown designer, but do cover the essentials that anyone working on the front-end really should know.

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability

The Non-Designer's Design Book

u/thinkingthought · 1 pointr/Entrepreneur

Poor usability. Bad navigation, fonts, colors, walls of text. All of that really hurts my opinion of a website. Design for a great user experience and customers will spend more time on your site.

I highly recommend you read the book Don't Make Me Think - A Common Sense Approach of Usability. I did not know a thing about user experience before reading this book and now I have a great idea what I'm doing. I was just updated a couple months ago and is highly relevant.

u/ZetaDot · 1 pointr/web_design

try "don't make me think" from Steve Krug. the third edition came out 2 months ago.. Is more about ui than design, still quite useful and a nice read

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

u/rukestisak · 1 pointr/Ubuntu
> Please tell me you don't expect people's websites to fit into a pixel grid and follow the mockup precisely.

D I do the transfer from mockup to code, so everything fits precisely to my specification hehehe. When I am transferring other people's mockups, I try and follow the mockup as closely as possible. Sometimes the mockups are not precise, themselves so I edit them.

> Where can I actually learn more about how to design from the ground up? I'm working on a site that has no existing analog, so I can't just look at how other people have done the same thing and mimic them. I don't even know what to put on what pages.

Hm, I would need some more information to give you good advice. Try and imagine a scenario where a customer is using your site. What is their main goal when using it? Can you simplify the process of them achieving this goal? Any less important goals? What are your main goals with the site? Where would the most logical place for various elements around the site be?

Read Don't make me think for a great usability primer. PM me if you want any more help.

> I thought Gimp did have adjustment layers. At the very least, you can set the blending mode for a layer in such a way that it effectively adjusts one thing in the overall image.

Can it place for example a Hue and Saturation filter on its own layer like Photoshop? I don't want to copy everything into a new layer, apply filter there and then mask or whatever.

> I think the cited reason for the lack of CMYK in Gimp is that they feel Gimp is specifically for image editing, not printing; Photoshop was originally created specifically for printing.

Right, PS started that way but then it evolved. I think GIMP should mimic a lot of PS functionality if they want to see pros switching.

> The .psd support is really lacking. I don't have any way of testing Krita's .psd support... But I do know that if I export a file as .psd from Krita, it doesn't open correctly in Gimp. Specifically, any text objects simply vanish. That's all I've tested, though. Granted, it doesn't exactly import into Krita perfectly either, even though it was saved from there...

Yep. If I receive a .psd from a client I need to be able to open it without any glitches. Currently it doesn't.

> If 'Blending options' in your post corresponds to this post about 'Blending Modes', yes, and Gimp has had them for a very long time. I refer to them earlier in this post, talking about adjustment layers (since I'm otherwise somewhat not sure what you mean by an adjustment layer).

I'm actually talking about the option titled Blending Options which you can select when you right click on a layer in PS. This brings up a Layer Style dialog box with a ton of options. Now, GIMP might have similar functionality scattered around, but I haven't found it yet and it's very useful as I use that dialog box constantly.

> I looked up adjustment layers. Gimp does not have them, but most people say a lot of their functionality - but not all of it - can be made up for with blending modes applied to layers 'above' the layer you want to adjust.

Hassle!

> Also, the APIs necessary for adjustment layers are coming in 2.10, after which they have the technological capability to make them.

That's good to hear. They have made great progress and I am sure they'll see their numbers rise if they get closer to PS functionality.

Another thing I forgot to mention, a minor gripe I have with GIMP's UI - I think the cursor and the selecting bounding boxes look clunky instead of precise. The tools should look and feel precise (as well as be precise), and I think GIMP is lacking here. Compare PS to GIMP and you'll see what I mean.

u/rootyb · 1 pointr/web_design

You know... most of my design work is strictly web-based. Links and stuff. A great book for that, though, is called Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug.

It's a pretty solid book that talks a lot about using things like hierarchy and position to visually describe relationships, rather than expecting the user to be able to think about it and figure it out (which users don't like to do, generally). It's more focused on web-specific stuff than general UI, but I think the lessons are broad enough that you could find them useful.

u/drewnibrow · 1 pointr/Design

Hey Mug2k. I think you are progressing well. Here are some resources that helped me with web and interaction heavy stuff b/c that's the direction you seem to be going. Also kudos for using Sketch!


Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug (The bible of interaction):
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515


A Book Apart by Various Authors (Based on the excellent blog 'A List Apart'):
http://www.abookapart.com/


Design+Code by Meng To (One of the best when it comes to Sketch):
http://designcode.io/

u/blurrah · 0 pointsr/webdev

I can remember a small quote (let me know if i'm wrong here) from "Don't make me think" that goes kinda like this:
Clicking through links to get to content is okay as long as the user doesn't have to think about the links.

That book is a great read. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0321965515/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile

u/theofficialLlama · 0 pointsr/learnprogramming

If you can afford it I'd highly recommend this course on udemy. Its $35 but theres always tons of udemy coupons floating around. I've been working through it and it definitely has helped me get a better understanding of both the front end and back end in web development since there's code alongs, exercises, quizzes, and you even make a bunch of small websites as well as a couple of actual web applications. That being said I'm not affiliated with it in any way. Just sharing what Ive been using to learn and its been very helpful.


Also there's tons of books available both paid and free.
As other people have mentioned, Duckett's books on html, css, javascript, and jquery are very beginner friendly with colorful and easy to understand material.

This is a good one that I've been going through to learn about UI/UX and the overall look and usability of your website. It basically teaches you how to make your website more approachable to whoever is navigating it.

I don't think anyone else has mentioned it but Udacity also has tons of free content, a large majority of it being web development and programming courses.

Other than that you're honestly going to just have to start messing around in a code editor and see what does what. Come up with an idea and really just start trying to code it. It could be a small one pager or it could be the start of your web development portfolio. A big thing that I've come to learn is that when you decide that you want to build something and you have no idea what you're doing, grab a good old pen and paper and write down or sketch what you want to do. Sketch what you want your page to look like. Then figure out how to code it. And if you get stuck google is your best friend. Break down what you want to do into smaller manageable chunks, do one thing at a time, and don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. Being a computer science student, this is the best advice I can give you when it comes to learning this stuff.