6 Design Tips if You Are a Total Newbie
Creating design for an app or a website is hard work, but if you are eager to learn — here’s your chance
Anyway, here’s Pablo Picasso’s quote that will definitely inspire you: “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
Who are we to disagree with this art prodigy? That’s it!
So don’t be doubtful — a world full of colors opens to those who are hungry for learning something new. Now let’s figure out some design basics for muggles.
Get inspiration everywhere
Seriously, here we are in the XXI century, with all its globalization. Just open the web and find thousands of examples on Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr or dig deeper! Learn from the best. Lance Wyman, the American graphic designer who created the logo of the 1968 Summer Olympic Games is at your disposal. Just enter the website and explore. Need ideas for typography styling? Go to Archetype. It will help you harmonize your design.
Search for design guides, blogs by award-winning designers, and just go outside.
Follow the “less is more” rule
Just as you want to visit everything on your first day in a foreign country, so young visionaries tend to put everything they’ve learned about web page design into the same piece.
“Extremes are easy. Strive to keep balance.” Colin Wright.
Remember that doing more with less is a number one trend today. Your illustrative thought must be clear and accurate. Start with making a black and white design. It will help you concentrate on the core design problems. Don’t combine lots of textures, mind the space of all elements, let your elements breathe, and feel free to get rid of anything that distracts attention from the main message of your design.
Ask Apple and Google
Apple and Google created great tips for everyone who wants to know how to make an app for Android or iOS. Just go to Human Interface Guidelines or Material Design and learn everything you need to know to start creating your software.
Think about your customer first
The better you know who you are designing for, the more balanced your design is. A black and white design for a food blog, for example, is not the way to boost the appetite of your audience. And vice versa, the “The creepiest horror stories of all times” blog won’t look convincing if you use pink, yellow, and other girlish colors. Let’s leave that for children's content :). Feel the context and you’ll be alright.
Redesign and feel free to copy
No plagiarism, of course. Just learn from the best website and app designers, take your favorite design and try to copy it just to find out whether you are good enough to outshine it. Besides, by knowing the functionality of a website or an app that you target to build, you’ll be able to decide on the design features you need a lot easier. So pick single-page websites, blogs, online magazines and then try to understand how the structure of the site reflects the purpose. Find best design examples and copy, copy, copy.
Study every day
Discover new facts every day, be brave to meet new challenges, and practice! “The only way to learn is by doing”, as one billionaire once said.
In the end, if you feel like you’ve studied everything — you are wrong. 😉
First, follow all the rules and then break them and create your own. Don’t be afraid to mix your knowledge and intuition, and the result won’t be slow to arrive.
Join thousands of developers that already create apps without code 10x faster. Start with the ready-made templates.