The original post was on My GoTo Design Resources - Reading Time: 4 Mins and cover image by Aleks Dorohovich on Unsplash
Introduction
Design is hard work. Design requires a constant desire to strive for perfection that can seem crazy for many. Thankful, we have the late Steve Jobs who has an obsession of great & compact design for computers. If not for him, we will be stuck with just white, grey, black and bulky computers.
I love inspiring & thought-provoking design, regardless of form or style. Sadly, I could not create a good design with ease. So I cheated by being a collector of designs that inspires and a few pre-created templates to apply it into my work.
Develiver Better Experience with Design Systems and Pre-Built Templates
So far, I had yet to encounter or worked on in-house design systems in the companies or startup I work with.
What I did stumble upon for my work was the use of Material UI for React or Creative Tim design systems for my projects. It's a tip by freelance developers to help in reducing time & effort to build a front-end. Not forgetting the feeling of having a beautiful and impressive front-end. With an easy to read the documentation of each component can be a joy to work with.
Theory or Philosophy for Designing a Product/Service
Design can be a frustrating & thankless job. I find that I begin to appreciate & understand the massive amount of effort. By both UI/UX designer, researchers and front-end developers alike, who builds a great experience for a product/service.
What amazes me the most about design is the focus on the use of innovation theory, philosophy & psychology. To allow a small and diverse team to build a well-loved product or service in just a matter of 2 or 3 weeks. By adopting practices like Design Sprints or Jobs to be Done.
So like any curious developer, I dive deeper to devour design topics with the focus to build products or services that are well-loved & praised by many. So here's my list of design resources for anyone who is curious and strives to develop well-loved product or service to solve a problem who uses it.
YouTube Channels
Podcast
Websites
- Figma
- Invision - Inside Design
- Design Better.co
- Design Systems
- Creative Tim
- CSS Tricks
- LearnUX
- Art Daily
- Topal Design
- Increment
- Font Awesome
- DrawKit
- Intro to the Design of Everyday Things
- Designing Your Life
Conclusion
I know the list can be kind of overwhelming. So I would suggest to take it slowly, one step at a time with special mention to The Futur & Intro to the Design of Everyday Things. I suggest picking a topic that seems interesting to you while you dive deeper. Being a person who learns by doing. You will find most of my resources are from Youtube channels.
My current interest is exploring the use of design systems & low-code platform. To reduce the barrier of entry for developers, UI/UX designers, business people to prototype an idea without depending on us developers. Which once they are done, they may require us to transit the prototype into an actual product/service within 3 months.
In a business point of view, this gives you tons of time to gather insights & build a relationship for your user to find your product-market fit. To improve your idea and translate it into a product/service that delivers value and serves to solve a pain point for your user.
Lastly, are you looking to specialise as a developer? If yes, I’m giving away my free ebook called "Picking Your Specialisation as a Developer". It is for anyone interested in commanding a higher salary or simply doing the work they like.
Reference
- Design Systems
- Design Sprints
- Jobs to be Done
- Design Course
- Flux
- AJ & Smart
- WebDev For You
- LevelUpTuts
- WesBos
- The Futur
- Webflow
- Syntax
- Design Better
- Figma
- Invision - Inside Design
- Invision - Inside Design
- Design Better.co
- Design Systems
- Creative Tim
- CSS Tricks
- LearnUX
- Art Daily
- Increment
- Font Awesome
- DrawKit
- Intro to the Design of Everyday Things
- Designing Your Life
Top comments (2)
That's a very complete list of valuable resources! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks I hope you love as it is something my friend was asking for UI/UX and design. So I thought it might be useful to share a consolidated list for ppl to use it to learn about Design.