There are a bunch of ways to become a better designer. But here’s a way you probably haven’t thought much about: learn to program.
Design is about solving problems, making things clearer, and making things work better. However, your designs don’t help anyone until they work. This is usually where a programmer comes into the picture. They make your designs work. But don’t you want to be able to do that?
I do. That’s why I’ll be taking the all new Rails for Designers class this fall at The Starter League. It’ll be hosted at our offices in Chicago.
So if you’re a designer, you know HTML and CSS, but you don’t know how to turn your designs into real, live applications, I hope you’ll join me, as well as a few of the other designers at 37signals, for the intensive, two-day a week, 3-hours a day, Rails for Designers class. Let’s learn how to make our designs work.
Important: Applications are due by this Sunday, September 16th. Don’t procrastinate – don’t miss out.
Ashraf Ali
on 13 Sep 12Hey, But I’m not in Chicago.. What paths would you recommend for a okay web designer/graphic designer. Javascript is the bane of my existence :(
Joey
on 13 Sep 12What do you recommend for people in the other boat? Developers who want to get a good foundation in design and user experience?
Rodrigo Flores
on 13 Sep 12Maybe you can have a course about Design for Railers :P
Drew Gilliam
on 13 Sep 12There’s a great book I recommend to friends that covers some high level basics of design if you already know how to code called Design for Hackers
Rob
on 13 Sep 12It’s “who wants” not “that wants”.
Geoffrey Grosenbach
on 13 Sep 12@Joey If I may shamelessly plug my own product, we recorded a video with Ryan Singer of 37signals that goes through his design process in a very developer-centric way. I’ve watched it a ton of times and learn something new every time.
https://peepcode.com/products/ryan-singer-ux
Matt
on 13 Sep 12For those of us that live out of the state, can you make these classes available online? (to watch after the live session is over)
Alex Turovski
on 14 Sep 12I’m also wondering about online courses. It is tough for us non-US designers :)
Aidil
on 14 Sep 12+1 for an online recording :)
karle
on 17 Sep 12Hey Jason, how about the opposite? I’m an engineer that would like to be able to do more of the creative.
Mark
on 17 Sep 12As a designer I found learning rails to be powerful and it helps me communicate and empathize with what developers have to go through on a regular basis. That knowledge also sits in the back of my mind as I design new products and features.
If you are a developer looking to learn design, the peepcode.com episode with Ryan is a great way to start learning how to think like a designer. Also I would pick up a usability book such as “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug. Learn how to make a website usable, then learn how to make it usable and pretty.
This discussion is closed.