Michele’s Freeminding

In the last year, I committed myself to learning how to design a website.
And when I say “how to design a website” I don’t mean “how to put some HTML together” - because I learnt it years ago. Instead, I mean “how to choose fonts, colors, imagery, positioning, etc.”.

Being a programmer

I started programming when I was 12, so it’s almost 10 years ago and I can say to be a pretty good coder. Indeed, I have a high school degree stating I am a Computer Technician and I’m currently studying Computer Engineering.

What I didn’t immediately notice was that learning the principles of design is not like learning a programming language.
You can take a book and learn how to write a C program, or even simpler a PHP program in less than a week. But you can’t take a book and learn how to design.

Sure, you can learn about color contrast, the difference between serif and sans-serif fonts, etc. but neither tells you how to create something that’s worth looking at.

Looking around

When learning web design, I think the best thing to do is look at good examples. But when it turns to create something, you shouldn’t try to emulate.
If you want to look at great web designs, resources like CSS Zen Garden and the likes are invaluable, also because they help you learn how to apply CSS and XHTML to creative processes.

Another thing that helps a lot, is reading a lot. Not reading just theoretical stuff, but reading what “professionals” are arguing about.
Because if you read what’s turning on real web designer, you learn where you should focus.

But theory is important, too

Sure, it’s not only about looking around.
For a programmer like me with no designing background, it’s extremely difficult to grasp many thing one should consider when designing something.

For example, when I started my journey through this wonderful land that’s designing, I wasn’t aware why something was better than something else: I was simply making my choices based on what I liked.
This is when turning to theory helps. And this is why at the moment, I’m reading a lot.

I’m reading about colors. I’m reading about fonts. I’m reading about everything.

How’s it going?

Actually, you should tell me how I am doing. But I think I’m starting to do pretty well.

My biggest problem is being creative. Sometimes I’m extremely creative, sometimes I’m not. Usually I’m not, and when I am, I’m usually banal.
But by “instructing” myself, I’m also learning how to be creative. Not that it’s possible to learn creativity, but by understanding how stuff works, you can also think of how to use that stuff.

I’m just at the beginning of this process and I know I still have tons of things to learn, but I’m excited and willing to learn new things.

You know what really help? working on real projects and facing real problems.
And that’s what I’m trying to do.

P.S.
For those who don’t know about C, the title of this entry is just a geeky way to say I’m trying to turn myself from coder to designer - but will I succeed? You’ll have to wait ’till the next episode…

This post was written 3 years, 6 months ago on May 14th, 2005 early evening.