If I think about everything that I don't have an opinion about, it's things that I don't understand very well. For example, car washes. I do not care what a car wash tunnel has, if it is brushless or not, if it uses some fancy shampoo or not - I have zero opinions. I can never find motivation to want to go redesign it, fix it or develop software for it.
But something like Github's pull request review? Oh boy. It's absolutely insane that you can not comment on an unchanged line in a file you are reviewing. If someone changes a function call 3 out of 4 places, and you want to leave a comment on that unchanged line of code saying "Hey, you forgot to change this too" - guess what? You can't. In my opinion, this is insanely moronic. An opinion like this can easily motivate one to want to go fix a thing or build a thing. (I don't want to solve this problem for other reasons, but that's unrelated to this discussion).
How do you form opinions? I don't know, but my guess is that listening to opinionated people with good taste really helps. Dan Norman's book "The Design of everyday things" [0] is one example of a very opinionated work. Bryan Cantrill of Oxide is also often very opinionated on system design, and his podcasts and talks are really fun [1]. When Steve Jobs was talking about just anything, he couldn't help being opinionated af [2]. I love "In praise of Shadows" by Junichiro Tanizaki where he just talks about experiences but you can tell he is deeply opinionated [3].
I don't know how one can develop good taste. Being around art, music, movies, people who obsess over details, people who care, people who expect perfection and accept nothing less - I believe there's some sort of osmosis where you just absorb aspects. I believe surrounding yourself with fantastic art, hiking through majestic trails, chilling with inspiring people - all help reset your acceptance of mediocrity down to 0. I am convinced that this is essential.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTVfAMRj-7E
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdplq4cj76I
[3] https://www.amazon.com/Praise-Shadows-Junichiro-Tanizaki/dp/...
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
A Catalogue of Unfindable Objects, by Jacques Carelman https://www.amazon.com/Objets-Introuvables-Catalogue-Fantast...
Perhaps best known for his Coffee Pot for Masochists, featured on the cover of Don Norman's book, The Design of Everyday Things https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
This will sound stupid, but that book was the first time I encountered the idea that a brain can just straight up miscalculate and make a mistake. No reason, no explanation. Just your thinking meat did the wrong thing.
Really great book. Very entertaining, and a pretty quick read. I'd recommend it to anybody.
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
Good designers thrive on taste.
To develop taste, study the world. Become an explorer of elegance.
Build things. Watch people struggle with your designs. Listen to their feedback.
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Sorry, enough poetry. Here are some links :)
• The Design of Everyday Things: https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
• Visual Display of Quantitative Information: https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Informati...
• 99% Invisible: https://99percentinvisible.org
Currently it costs $75, but Udemy often has coupons/promotions for up to 95% off (I registered for $15). This course is normally $5000+. It is very thorough and well-explained. Like 20+ hours of video lectures, slides and full transcripts. Also the instructor is very responsive and active in the course's private FB group.
This course is shorter and more focused on web UI (vs more general UX): https://keynotopia.com/ux/
You can probably find resources for free, but then you might end up paying with your time. If you're really strapped for cash, I suggest borrowing books from the library: free and probably better than a lot of the low-cost/free resources online.
Don Norman's is one of the most respected UI/UX researchers. His book is used to teach UI at universities: https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
Don Norman also contributed to Apple's HIG, which is actually a very good free online resource: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
There might also be some good open courseware like this: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...
> Deep Work https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/...
> Can't Hurt Me https://www.amazon.com/Cant-Hurt-Me-Master-Clean/dp/15445078...
> Talking to Humans https://www.amazon.com/Talking-Humans-Success-understanding-...
> Rich Dad Poor Dad https://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor-Teach-Middle/dp/1612680...
> 4 Hour Workweek https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/...
> Steve Jobs https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648...
> The Design of everyday things https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
> Siddhartha: A Novel https://www.amazon.com/Siddhartha-Novel-Hermann-Hesse/dp/055...
> The Four Agreements https://www.amazon.com/Four-Agreements-Practical-Personal-Fr...
> Rework https://www.amazon.com/Rework-Jason-Fried/dp/0307463745?dchi...
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
I find most designers go through two phases, starting out they are very free form and fancy-graphics-for-the-sake-of-graphics approach, mostly because they can, which is where all newbies start. Then they learn about usability/functional design after reading something like "Design of Everyday Things" [1] which does a great job of selling why the functional nature of the product matters first-and-foremost as much or more as the way it looks. This is the first step in being a good and useful designer.
But people don't realize that same author Don Norman released an equally important book called "Emotional Design" [2] which digs deeper into why something like an Apple product is not only easy-to-use but is designed in such that it melds into our life cleanly, it goes beyond just being a useful tool to where it becomes part of our identity and we treat it like a piece of art.
The mature designers learn that good design goes beyond merely simplifying a 5 click process down to 2 (for example), towards crafting something that creates an emotional connection with the people buying it. For example: sometimes adding an extra 3rd step which communicates information or eases anxiety in the user is more important than the lowest amount of clicks/time to action is completed.
Yet most usability-obsessed designs would dismiss this as unnecessary distraction when the immediate 'conversion' should be 100% the goal, instead of realizing the wider emotional experience that exists in these same processes. It's easy to get someone to click a red button over a black one for psychological reasons, but it takes good design to have it naturally flow as part of the goal in the users mind at the time, which helps create a solid long-term connection with the customer.
The type of relationship where people recommend your product to others, not just solving their problem quickly and forgetting it.
This is the more abstract and intuitive part of design that reaches beyond what the more scientific approach to usability and functional design can achieve by itself. That's were things like aesthetics, colour, copywriting, and the whole experience buying the product and interacting with the company comes in. The stuff that seems like excess in a totally functional perspective. This is what turns a product from merely more useful than the rest of the market into something that is coveted and sought-out by customers when they see the brand name or designer behind it. It's the attention to the details and experience of the humans using your product, not just robots greased to the credit card page the quickest.
Most software/hardware sucks at even getting the functional parts down, which is why it gets hyped up and valued so much - which is fine, that's where the lowest hanging fruit will remain. But that doesn't mean it stops there.
1. https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
2. https://www.amazon.com/Emotional-Design-Love-Everyday-Things...
For a good book about what design is: The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman [1].
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
However I’d suggest that coming from an engineering background, you might find joy in learning about user testing first as that’s usually a big eye-opener that helps you understand why the field of UX design is important.
A classic book to start with is “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug[0], which covers usability testing and even how to conduct a session yourself.
Then there’s “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman[1], whom many consider the ‘father’ of the modern field of UX. That one can be a bit dense though.
If you want to think like a designer, then learning about Design Thinking[2] is a good place to start.
Hope that helps!
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/d...
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
Both have a huge impact on how I work with code and design them. Trying to explain these concepts are hard without context. Sometimes i just copy/paste the sections i think they could benefit from.
While UI/UX is more of a field where you get better by practice and observation, yet these books can surely help you build a solid foundation.
I think it is oversold, but the book "Design of Everyday Things"[1] goes over this for many common items. There is a long section on doors with many interesting points to consider.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...
http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expande...
Interesting discussion in itself.
While this article provides some metaphorical fish - I found the Design of everyday things helps you become a fisherman.
EDIT: Swapped the order of references.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expande...
[2] http://blog.codinghorror.com/recommended-reading-for-develop...
[0] http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expande...
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Emotional-Design-Love-Everyday-Things/...
> There's a pretty useful manual built into the device itself called Hints I think? Did you read that?
I posit that if one needs to load up the Tips app to figure out how to perform desired functions, that's a problem with the UX and not the human trying to use the device/app.
The ideas espoused in The Design of Everyday Things[0] pops into mind right now.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...