| Designer here. Author makes some decent points, but misses the mark elsewhere. The post reads like a "developers idea of basic design tips." - This post only touches on visual design. Important, but just a subset of what "design" is. - Dribbble is very "artsy" and not typically as focused on practical product design. I personally dont think its beneficial to spend time there, unless like the author states, you're interested in emerging visual trends. - The author doesnt mention the foundations of design, which is disappointing. Spacing, alignment, visual hierarchy. affordances, etc. If you're building an app without a designer its far more important to understand those concepts than how to design a logo. My advice, depending on how much time you're willing to invest: - Read "Dont Make me Think" by Steve Krug (2.5~ hour read) - Read the first half-ish of "The design of everyday things" (4 hours?) - You may balk at the length of those reads, but I promise you, spending one day to learn design fundamentals is an extremely valuable use of your time. Common mistakes I see developers making: - No attention to spacing consistency - Not creating enough space between unrelated elements - Not aligning enough things - Weak visual hierarchy - Misusing radios vs. checkboxes vs. dropdowns, etc |
But with that said, it’s surprisingly hard to recruit designers to work on OSS projects, and I think you need to start out with a half-decent design before people who can actually help you will want to join on. So thank you for the input.