Designed for use

What Hacker News says

1. lloekiJun 2019
   Not a designer by a long shot but I admit to be very interested in the matter. Here are a few books I found quite fascinating.

   Designed for Use by Lukas Mathis

   Design for Hackers by David Kadavy

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2. lloekiApr 2015
   > Magnificent link

   If you're interested in this kind of stuff, may I recommend reading Designed for Use by Lukas Mathis.

   > does anyone know of *nix (preferably Linux) DE that does it the OS X way?

   Gnome 3 does it slightly differently (menu entries get collapsed into one) and tries hard to respect Fitts's law, to the point of being quite innovative in how submenus work (they expand instead of branching in a tree). If you approach it with an open mind, it's quite nice.

   KDE used to have an option to put the menubar on top. Plasma changed a lot of things, so I don't know if this still stands.

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3. tjostenAug 2014
   The best book about User Interface Design / User Experience I've read so far is Designed for Use by Lukas Mathis: http://www.amazon.com/Designed-Use-Create-Interfaces-Applica...
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4. eswatMar 2014
   The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman [http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/d...]

   Designed for Use: Create Usable Interfaces for Applications and the Web by Lukas Mathis [http://www.amazon.com/Designed-Use-Create-Interfaces-Applica...]

   Don’t Make Me Thing by Steve Krug would have been my third.

   I don’t believe any of these emphasize minimalism, and I’m not sure what help you’re looking for in that regard?

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5. quartertoDec 2013
   Please don't take the this the wrong way, usability is hard and hey, you actually built something, which can be a goal in and of itself, but: please go read a book on usability. Designed for Use by Lukas Mathis [1] is a great introduction. The first few things that stood out for me:

   • It's my first time seeing the page, I want to know what it is. I definitely don't want to load a config. The default config should be the first thing the user sees, as it does a reasonable job of explaining the concepts.

   • The button for adding a card is tiny and far away for where the cards get added.

   • The menu being hidden by default means its items are not at all discoverable. It could still be collapsible, but open by default if you want users to actually use it.

   • Pressing ESC in the initial modal ends up in an irreversibly (without refresh) broken state.

   • The only way to save appears to be exporting a JSON file. You should look into LocalStorage or IndexedDB as a way to autosave so the user doesn't lose their content by inadvertently closing the tab, navigating or refreshing.

   • Deleting a column is instant and irreversible. You should have confirmation, or, even better, undo.

   I'm guessing you've built this to fulfil a personal niche, so kudos for getting it built. God knows I never finish anything I build for myself.

   [1] http://pragprog.com/book/lmuse/designed-for-use (or if you google hard enough there are ahem totally legit free PDFs)

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6. bjzJul 2012
   For technical skills, I would recommend using Photoshop for web/ui design. Unfortunately at the moment it's the best out there. Some good things to seek out are adjustment layers and layer effects. Bjango has some great tutorials, although they are focused on UI design: http://bjango.com/articles/

   In terms aesthetics, the most import thing is to develop your 'design palate'. Seek out excellent craftsmanship and learn to distinguish it from the mediocre. An excellent place to start is SiteInspire: http://siteinspire.com/

   I would also recommend learning the fundamentals of design. Typography and grid systems are very important study areas. A great place to start is this forum thread: http://www.designerstalk.com/forums/graphic-design/42390-des...

   For empirical testing of designs, I would highly recommend Lukas Mathis' Designed for Use: http://pragprog.com/book/lmuse/designed-for-use Be warned however that the print version is horridly designed, just get the .epub to bypass the ugly formatting.

   And always have in the back of your mind: 'less is more'. Just because you've learned how to do fancy gradients, reflections and rounded corners, doesn't mean you should.

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