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| | Ask HN: How can I get better at design? | |
163 points by nudge on June 30, 2010 | hide | past | favorite | 98 comments
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| | While for larger projects it makes most sense to partner with a designer, I would like to be able to make my own hobby projects/sites look a bit better (http://vowsjs.org/ is a fantastic example - I wouldn't even know where to begin). The problem is, I'm not terribly artistic. I understand HTML/CSS fine, and I can tell what (I think) looks good, but I wouldn't have a clue how to do it myself. Is this something I can improve at, and if so, how? Thanks. |
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- Lack of white/negative space: You need room for your elements and type to breathe. Along this same line, you need to give generous padding and margins to things. If you ever have type squished up against the edge of a box, that's guaranteed to look bad. Have a repertoire of spacing that gets used in multiples: 5px, 10px, 20px, etc.
- Lack of hierarchy/scale: I think these two go hand in hand. One of my typography teachers in school had a saying: "Don't just make it 60pt, make it 600pt." Rather than bumping the heading up 10px, bump it up 30 or 40.
Bonus tip: Read about Gestalt Theory and you'll start to understand the psychology behind design. Might work for you if you're a techie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology