Eight tips to make you a top designer

If you are a designer like me, the work you are designing should be beautiful first. Perhaps this may touch your self-esteem and make you feel that the designer needs to have an ability that is enough to make the world a better place.

If you are an engineer, you may wonder why these designers have such great power. Is this hereditary? or is it because design colleges teach them the top design tips? or did they trade with the devil and use their eyes for design inspiration?

So now I've got some good news for you: There's no need for engineers to look for a panacea to improve their visual design capabilities. And I'm pretty sure that good design skills, like riding a bike, playing the piano, can be practiced the day after tomorrow. If you practice enough, your design will become more and more good. And once you have mastered it completely, the skill will not degenerate. And I said this because I had a bad design ability, and then I had a graphic design friend gave me some advice, and in a few years, I can proudly claim that I am a design expert. Today I would like to share these suggestions with you. The first five suggestions are more suitable for visual design, and the following three are more suitable for interactive design.

1. Put the design elements in a straight line

This is the basis of all graphic design rules. Unless you want to create a masterpiece of the Mona Lisa, put all the design elements on a straight line. Our brains prefer this way. This style of design is called the grid system, it can put more things on the same line. Children in kindergartens can do it, and so do we adults.

2. Design of Blank areas

If you're in the same elevator with 15 people, you're going to be in trouble breathing ... Especially when someone farts. When you design a layer or UI interface, do not try to put too many elements into a page, arbitrarily add an element can destroy the overall visual effects. Leave some blank space and give your eyes time to breathe. I usually leave some blank space between the elements to make sure that the elements are not too far away or too close to each other.

3. Using the designer's font

In the world of design there are good fonts and bad fonts. Good fonts (like Gotham, mini-advertisements Gothic Bold condensed and Garamond) can make people's eyes happy and give you a refreshing feel for a refreshing cocktail on the beach. and bad fonts are like eye poo, disgusting. Avoid the use of high-priority default fonts, such as impact, Curlz, and comic Sans. If you have to use a forward-placed font, Helvetica and Georgia are two fonts that are preferred--two classic fonts that have been fully improved. If you want a design font that you can perform prominently on the web, try Typekit. ...... But please don't use WordArt.

4. Maintain the continuity of design

In your design, do not use more than two fonts and more than three colors. To maintain the consistency of the entire design sketch. As we draw an element, we first stop to think about it and keep it consistent with the entire design. Also, let's not try to stretch logos and images. Imagine if someone had stretched your face 5% horizontally, would that look good?

5. Continuous Visual inspection

I don't know you, but when I cook, I always try to make sure I put the right amount of seasoning. When you design, you have to test it from time to moment. Always look at your design screen. What is the first thing you see? What's next? Also look at this design screen again in ten steps. Whether you believe it or not, the designer can keep the design correct by just doing it. It also helps you avoid adding unnecessary details and buttons.

6. Set Priority

We should separate the important things from the unimportant, which will save you a lot of energy.

7. The humanized design of the test UI

A UI interface succeeds because it brings a comfortable feeling when people first see it. Before you start designing, ask yourself what kind of human characteristics each element of your design has. If the UI is redesigned, how does it feel?

8. Use of Keynote

I like to use keynote. Keynote can make all elements in the same line, and can easily beautify all elements. Without this magical program, I don't know if there are other ways to help me get there today. In addition to allowing slides to be turned into small windows, it also makes the UI interface look smoother. You can search for the keyword "Keynote mockup templates" and you can find a lot of ways to quickly and easily build beautiful prototyping applications.

In addition to these, please watch out for other methods. Self-confidence often leads to the idea that you are always right and others are wrong. But there is one thing to admit: you may not always be right.

You can't become a super designer overnight, you need to practice and believe that you can do well. Finally, repeat, "I can also be a design expert"--eventually you will make your dream come true. (Compile: Chen)

Original link: Design LSA for Engineers