How to Teach Yourself Design
It took me a long way to start my journey as a developer/ designer. With help of books, podcasts, online courses, blogs and of course my education at Birkbeck.
I just want to share this with people who also wants to learn but not sure where to start, here are some things that I find really helpful!
Podcast:
- User Defenders: Love how the guests share their stories when they start their career as designer etc., it is really inspiring!
- Design Details: They based in San Francisco. It is made for designers and developers alike, you would love it if you are a geek like me!
These are my favourites at the moment. They talk about design, UX, UI, developing, and tech. I use my time commuting to listen and it keeps me good company. Sometimes I laughed out loud and yes I am that pathetic. I literally went through every single episode of User Defenders and wondering why didn’t I find it earlier? Anyone knows other good ones please let me know.
Online Course:
- Codecademy: Fantastic tool for people like me who had no coding background. Most important thing is, it doesn’t scare you! Mostly free, although you will have to pay for more functions. I started few but didn’t finish all of them as I had to pay to continue. Still a good place to learn though.
- Coursera: I feel really lucky to live in this time and age. You get to learn for free from top universities in your home! I haven’t used them enough us I should but definitely recommended. A lot of technology courses but also some other things too.
- EDX: Similar to Courser. Just Discovered it recently. Seems easy to use.
- Alison: Shorter and easier courses, not nessarily from universities. It might not be as appealing, but it is actually few places where I finish a course. I learnt graphic design principle here. Mostly free, pay for getting proper certificates.
- Open2Study: Similar to above. It is a free version of open university Australia, so they are mostly intro courses. I did a user experience for the web course with them. The course doesn’t take long to complete but it was a good start, it actually made me interested in user experience design. Enjoyable.
- Open Learn: Free intro courses from Open University. I haven’t used it personally, but I’ve been wanting to.
Books:
- HTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide: I used this book through out my web design course with Birkbeck and it help me lots.
- The Design of Everyday Things: I think 99.9% people recommend this book in design filed. A really enjoyable read. I also got Emotional Design from Donald A Norman, but I haven’t found time to read them yet.
- Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability: A go-to book for a lot designers who does web. It is surprisingly a short enough book but full of useful tips. An inspiring, funny and easy to read! Love every seconds reading it.
- Burn Your Portfolio: I am currently reading this book. Another easy to read. Of course I won’t literally burn my portfolio. The author mainly refers to graphic designers, but I think it gives solid advice on how to ‘work’ as a designer in general.
I really should read a lot more than I do. There are too many books in my shelf and to-read list!
Blogs/ websites:
- Medium: Many inspiring articles. A lot of good designers write posts here.
- Smashing Magazine: Lots of good articles for developers and designers.
- CSS-Tricks: You will find this website very useful if you are a going to be a web designer /developer.
- It’s Nice That: A website that’s nice to look at. Cool design articles.
Articles:
- How to Become a Designer Without Going to Design School: One of the biggest inspiration for me. Also it’s very particle, a lot of good suggestions.
App:
- Pockets: I used to save lots of design articles on my phone/ iPad, this app allows me to read them offline. When I worked as a cabin crew, I usually read them on the plane when everyone goes to sleep. I am thankful as I read so much during those times! I still love this app but I don’t use them as much anymore.
- Pinterest: How can I not mention Pinterest with design. I am a big fan of dream/mood board and a crazy Pinterester. It litterally makes my dreams come true no kidding. A great place to store inspirations. I have a collections overflow on my Pinterest which I still have to tidy them up. I am still looking for a good and hopefully free app to keep my web design inspiration in good place.
Other than that, I can’t really give advice on doing more work or how to make a killer portfolio. Because I still have to work on that myself. Do more. Design more. Any recommendation is more than welcome!
Originally published at www.sandychiu.co.uk on February 25, 2017.
