IMHO this is more like a designer asking another designer how to be a developer. In my experience most developers aren't great designers. I think that's why GUIs in open source software tend to be lackluster. those kinds of project attract developers, not designers and a GUI is often a second or even third class citizen to them.
While I've encountered devs that have a talent for both many had the "eye" before the code. While anything can be taught and learned if you have no proclivity towards it you're likely to never excel at it without pain. Imagine asking the same question if you were making music "hey devs who play instruments, how do I make good music". My advice would not be so much as "give up" but, "know your expertise", collaborate with someone who covers your weaknesses.
That said really good delivery is often hard won. different tasks have different concerns as well as different clientele. Get your designs in front of customers, there's software specifically for tracking UX metrics as well as general analytics. Don't trust that you can "know best", more than likely what you think is sensible someone else won't and given a large enough customer base people will flounder in your UI in ways that you could not possible fathom.
And most important: Copy whatever is already good. half of what they'll be doing is all the common tropes (gear means settings, hamburger means mo' menu), copy everything that works, users will find your product more naturally intuitive if they've already effectively learned it somewhere else.
which UX metrics you’ve personally found the most valuable?
> Copy whatever is already good
it immediately reminded me of Steal Like an Artist. Great advice, and I always forget that sites like Dribbble exist since they’re not usually in my go-to set of tools
Record the interactions (you, and with test subjects too). You’ll see more things.
Study competing UIs. Consciously reverse engineer their UIs. Don't know what you like but get the idea:
- PhotoShop vs Gimp
- Maya vs Blender
- Excel vs Numbers
- FCP vs Premier vs Resolve
- Finder vs Explorer
Watch youtubers using them. For example, music composers have very interesting and different programs UI-wise. Or DJs, which need interfaces for live-performance.
Then give it a twist and use not directly competing programs that can be used for a similar goal. For example, for UI design:
- Figma vs Illustrator vs Inkscape vs PowerPoint vs PhotoShop vs Word vs Excel vs plain text
IMHO this is more like a designer asking another designer how to be a developer. In my experience most developers aren't great designers. I think that's why GUIs in open source software tend to be lackluster. those kinds of project attract developers, not designers and a GUI is often a second or even third class citizen to them.
While I've encountered devs that have a talent for both many had the "eye" before the code. While anything can be taught and learned if you have no proclivity towards it you're likely to never excel at it without pain. Imagine asking the same question if you were making music "hey devs who play instruments, how do I make good music". My advice would not be so much as "give up" but, "know your expertise", collaborate with someone who covers your weaknesses.
That said really good delivery is often hard won. different tasks have different concerns as well as different clientele. Get your designs in front of customers, there's software specifically for tracking UX metrics as well as general analytics. Don't trust that you can "know best", more than likely what you think is sensible someone else won't and given a large enough customer base people will flounder in your UI in ways that you could not possible fathom.
And most important: Copy whatever is already good. half of what they'll be doing is all the common tropes (gear means settings, hamburger means mo' menu), copy everything that works, users will find your product more naturally intuitive if they've already effectively learned it somewhere else.
> software specifically for tracking UX metrics
which UX metrics you’ve personally found the most valuable?
> Copy whatever is already good
it immediately reminded me of Steal Like an Artist. Great advice, and I always forget that sites like Dribbble exist since they’re not usually in my go-to set of tools
Three tips:
Record the interactions (you, and with test subjects too). You’ll see more things.
Study competing UIs. Consciously reverse engineer their UIs. Don't know what you like but get the idea:
Watch youtubers using them. For example, music composers have very interesting and different programs UI-wise. Or DJs, which need interfaces for live-performance.Then give it a twist and use not directly competing programs that can be used for a similar goal. For example, for UI design: