You Already Know Design by Zach Inglis Belfast Ruby Nov 2012 @zachinglis 1 [Remember. Be cool, chill, relax. Speak from the heart. Don’t read slides]

DISCLAIMER When I mention the word ‘design’, I mean Visual Design and UX Design. 2 Just so people are aware, I’m using design in the Visual and UX design ways, rather than tech design or design in the lateral sense.

Me * Education: 2 GCSEs (Despite being predicted all A*) * Quarter a year of a degree being taught web design in Microsoft Word. * Colourblind Designer * Dyslexic Coder * Completely self-taught. 3 … I know right. Not really doing myself any justice. Why would you want to listen to what I have to say?

Me * Worked at 2 of the top companies in each respective discipline. * Created some cool shit in his time. NDA’s SUCK! 4 I’ve been doing this for about 13 years now. I’ve led some great projects, both design and development, some under well known brands, led the redesign for a site that gets 80,000 concurrent users, led projects for Mozilla, and others on shit that I love that I can’t talk about for some unknown reason because NDAs suck.

Who I Am Previously Hashrocket Mark Boulton Design Employee #8 5 I was, like, the 8th employee at Hashrocket I believe. I was introduced as a developer, but then took a hybrid role. At Mark Boulton Design I was mainly a UX designer.

Who I Am Currently 6 I run a tiny studio in Cardiff, Wales. Currently looking for our first-hire, and a partner too. We consult and make products too. And I bill myself out as both.

Biggest Inspiration D. T. N. Williamson 1923–1992 7 So, my biggest inspiration throughout life was my grandfather. This was a man who did what he put his mind to. The guy was an inventor. He created cool shit - shit that your phones couldn’t do without, or that helped produce what you have in your kitchen cupboards. The guy, like me, was colourblind. He used to have to ask my mom what colours the wires were. Doing what he loved, despite the fact he was hindered. Design is a skill just like engineering and is achievable no matter how hard it looks.

Why? * It’s helpful to know why the designer is making the decisions they are. * It’s great to build your own projects by yourself. * It’s fun! Design isn’t for everyone but knowing a little is good. 8 I believe people should try everything once, but I don’t believe you HAVE to do it all. A basic understanding doesn’t hurt.

Design is an accessible and learnable skill anyone can have. I’ve never met anyone I didn’t think could make it. 9 Design doesn’t take a certain type of person - it may take longer for some. But anyone can do it and the barrier for entry is low.

When you start designing, you tend to want to design every millimeter. 10 Everyone’s first designs they start to add gradients to every nook and cranny. Tons of borders, and you end up with something that looks like it was built with the Geocities editor. We all have done it.

In programming, you only create methods for a reason. Do the same with design. 11 If you want to add a feature, you always keep it lean and add the minimal code to keep a system robust. Why do people forget to do that with design?

Design is like programming in that it goes deeper than the surface Every element on the page has had thought. 12 The basis of all great design has logical decisions. If you can’t think why an element on the page should be there, throw them out. Justify everything.

Great design is trying to design as little as possible. Finding the simplest solution to a problem. Much like programming! 13 Remember the days when people had just discovered Ruby and metaprogramming was super popular as it was such a neat feature. Then there was a surge of realisation that you could just write 50% of the code in a simple and verbose way.

Like development, adding constraints can often give the most eloquent solutions. Designing without constraints is art. Constraints: Grids, colours, content, etc. 14 In programming, when you have technology constraints, or security constraints, often I find people come out with creative solutions. Constraints breed ingenuity. Grids are a perfect example - misunderstood by many people - but they’re a tool to push unity and make you think outside the box.

We all start out bad. Just keep pushing through it and you'll break through the barrier eventually. Very few people come fly kicking out of the proverbial design womb. 15 Every single one of us started off as a blank slate. Some fell into design quicker, but we all started out shit. If you’re designing and feeling down about the result - remember that it’s just part of the journey of learning.

Keep your design DRY. If there's a button that works, do you need to do a new style? 16 Again, another great programming principle. It should apply to design too. It fractures the design.

Refactor that shit! 17 When developing, refactoring not only brings up a sense of accomplishment, it improves the overall quality. Keep the standards high, and keep going back and refactoring.

Need help? Tweet me at @zachinglis and I’ll try and help where I can. Check out crit.io and register. This is a tool I’m creating to help designers of all calibers get better. 18 So, that’s it. I hope you enjoyed.