Ask HN: How do I cultivate design thinking?

[svram]

I am adept at building the backend for mobile/web applications but when it comes to building the UI, I end up building something mediocre. How do I get to a point where I am able to think like a designer AND build out a professional, non-noob UI?

[kylegalbraith]

There are a lot of great resources out there around UX design. I think understanding the UX principles goes a long way to facilitating useful and clean UI's.

Some good resources I have seen. https://uxclub.com/ https://www.uxpower.tools/

[brudgers]

[random opinion from the internet]

I am hesitant about the term "design thinking" because it somewhat implies that design is in the head rather than the hand. Design is a process that generates many artifacts out in the real world and the premise is that most of them will not be 'good enough.'

To me, design thinking means thinking by creating designs. Out in the real world. Not in the head. My maximum is "there is no such thing as a design in my mind." If it is not on paper (i.e. there is not a 'hard copy'), then it isn't really a design. The way to cultivate design thinking is doing design and failing and figuring out why things work and don't work.

A design is done when time runs out.

Good luck.

[pizza]

Use the thing over time, and over different people, and over much of both. Get faster at understanding why v1, v2, v3.. annoy you, by getting better at remembering which ideas are not good. What you see in v1 distorts your imagination of v2, what you see in v2 distorts your imagination into v3, etc.. Practice with patience but unrelentingly..

[carapace]

"Humane Interface" by Jef Raskin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface