Design Foundations For Developers

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about design foundations for developers — tips to follow that will make your designs better!

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Show Notes

6:35 - Our backgrounds in design

12:41 - Foundations

• Consistency makes a big difference
• Use “training wheel” tools until you are confident
• Always work within a system
• Less is more - subtle is better

19:39 - Color

• Color theory
• Complementary colors and shades
• Stick to color pallet generators until you are good enough

28:51 - Spacing

• More spacing than you think you need
• Vertical rhythm
• Letter spacing: -1px
• Consistent margin and padding

34:47 - Typography

• Sans vs serifs
• Finding fonts
• Use proven combinations until you know your way around

41:49 - Interaction

• Design for all states (e.g. standard, visited, active, hover, etc.)
• Animations should be quick
• Interactions should make sense

45:04 - Concerns beyond visuals

• Accessibility via color contrast
• Thin fonts and light grey are awful
• Think about the poor Windows users

48:47 - Inspiration + Resources

• Take inspiration from the best — you’ll find your own voice after enough work
• Go easy on trends - blobby characters with purple hair
• Take a trip around the world wide web
• Stripe
• Dribbble
• Site Inspire
• codrops
• Refactoring UI

Links

• Designer Starter Pack - Andrea Crofts
• LastPass
• Colour Lovers
• Syntax 142: Travis Neilson on Skills Gap, Design, Focus and Working at Google
• Bloomberg
• Dropbox
• FontPair
• FontJoy
• Figma - Google Font Pairings
• Type Scale
• Creative Market
• Radnika Next
• Stripe
• Dribbble
• Syntax 72: Accessibility
• Firefox
• Site Inspire
• codrops
• Refactoring UI
• Adam Wathan
• Steve Schoger

××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ×××

• Scott: Reelgood
• Wes: Magnesium

Shameless Plugs

• Scott: FullStack React with NextJS - Sign up for the year and save 25%!
• Wes: Beginner Javascript

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