One of the things that I like about web design is that there’s always plenty to learn, regardless of how experienced you are. I know that my knowledge really only scratches the surface of web design and development, and I appreciate the fact that seemingly unlimited resources are available to allow me to become a better designer.
Every designer needs to place some importance on continued learning and improvement due to constant changes in the industry. Without ongoing improvement and adaptation you might be designing sites that would have looked cool in 1997. One of the challenges for designers is finding time and making this a priority rather than an afterthought.
The design community is filled with sources of inspiration and helpful sites for encouraging growth in abilities. Each of us needs to take our own unique approach to personal development that works for us. I’d like to share some of my thoughts and what works well for me. Hopefully some of it will be applicable for you as well.
Tips for Learning from Other Designers
The online community of designers truly is a community in that there is a lot of interaction and people willing to help others. As a result, we can all learn from talented individuals who are willing to provide some teaching or inspiration. All of us have our own unique strengths and weaknesses as designers, which makes it easy and convenient to give and take. It’s not the case where the most experienced have nothing to learn or no one to learn from.
Improving skills as a designer can come in a few different forms. You could pick up a book, follow online tutorials, look at inspiring examples from other designers, accept a challenging project, or just play around and experiment on your own. Personally, I like to mix it up and learn in a few different ways.
Get an RSS Reader
I’m sure most of you are already using an RSS reader, but they may have some helpful features that you’re not using. I use Google Reader and when I come across a tutorial that interests me, I’ll star it for later. When I’m reading through my feed reader I rarely have time to work through a detailed tutorial at that moment, but it may be something that I’ll want to use later. By starring it I can easily continue what I was doing, and then when I have some time I’ll go through my starred items and find one that I want to work through.
My advice is to star the good tutorials that you find throughout the week, and then once a week go back to your starred items, find the most interesting one and go through it. Most of us don’t have time to go through all of the tutorials that interest us, but one per week is realistic, and you’ll still benefit from continued growth that can be taken in any direction you choose.
Bookmark Designs for Inspiration
Those of us who read design-focused blogs and/or visit design galleries constantly come across designs and examples of work form other designers that can inspire us in our own work. With no system to keep track of these items, you may remember one of them but have no way to get back to it when you need it. A bookmark manager like Del.icio.us is an excellent solution for this problem.
Many designers are already using this approach, as you can see by looking at the tag “inspiration.” However, if you have a large number of bookmarks tagged as inspiration, it may be hard to find specific examples when you are looking for them. Maybe you’re bookmarking a page because of a specific aspect that you like, such as navigation. Del.icio.us can be even more helpful for you if you use a more specific tag like “inspiration-nav”. If you consistently use descriptive tags you’ll have a wealth of help when you’re in need of inspiration on a specific aspect of style of design.
Ask Questions
Having a network of other skilled designers can be very handy when you need some help. Not too long ago I was looking to add a specific functionality to a site that I’m working on and I wasn’t sure what was the best way to go about achieving the end result. I have a friend that has similar functionality on her site, so I sent her an email asking what she would recommend. Her response was better than I could have expected with some great advice and examples to use in my own site. Many designers are willing to help, you just have to ask (and it helps to have an existing relationship).
If you don’t have an existing network of designers, start to get out an meet new people, whether it’s online or off. You can also take advantage of forums that are available for this purpose. However, you’ll need to be careful of the advice that you take, as some forum users may not necessarily provide the best advice.
Read Books
Many of us spend so much time online that we forget or overlook many of the more traditional resources that are available. There are some excellent books on design on just about any subject you need help with. This is one method that I need to use more often myself.
What’s Your Approach to Learning from Other Designers?
How do you take advantage of the knowledge and skills that other designer make accessible to us?
July 10th, 2008
Great read, I think the main thing I learnt from other designers is that you don’t have to stick to a certain style, you can experiment and try new things without looking completely insane.
The other thing that I’ve learnt about being in contact with other designers is just how welcoming and sharing this industry is, it’s brilliant!
July 10th, 2008
My parents are stained glass and woodworking artisans and are constantly learning new skills from talking / working with other artists. In their particular case there are a few stores / workshops where they can go to learn and teach their craft to / from others. Not only is it an educational and productive opportunity to work on whatever projects they are doing, it tends to be a healthy social opportunity as well.
Unfortunately the design industry doesn’t require the raw inputs (glass, wood, quilt fabric, etc) that their industry does, so a design store as such does not exist where one could go for such learning opportunities. However, if such a regular forum could be started, it might be a great way to build your network AND learn. Perhaps the group could deliver small projects for non-profit groups or pro-bono work with the understanding the schedule is VERY flexible. That way you could try something outside your comfort zone and have others to assist in the process. Having a tangible concept to implement always makes the learning process easier for me.
July 10th, 2008
[...] Learning from Other Designers | Vandelay Website Design - Another great article from Vandelay. Good to know I’m currently doing almost everything that’s recommended - perhaps I’ll finally learn something [...]
July 10th, 2008
For design inspiration, I use this great plugin for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5648
Also, I have a Dropbox account where I store every piece of design everywhere I can. With Fireshot I can easily add “tags” and descriptions to any image.
I find this very useful and already have a huge list of great design examples.
Also, I have to start with reading some books…
July 10th, 2008
This is almost exactly what I do, except that instead of starring things, I bookmark them in de.licio.us, tagging them “later” to go back and spend more time on them later. I love that Google Reader now has search capabilities as well, all that information I’ve previously read ready to be recalled instantly.
One of my favorite feeds in my Google Reader? Vandelay Web Design!
July 10th, 2008
I have the best of intentions to install the OS Designer - CSS Gallery Wordpress Theme onto my own site to catalogue the sites which I find impressive and can draw inspiration from for the future. Those intentions haven’t yet translated into reality unfortunately.
July 10th, 2008
I’ve been trying to expand my design abilities for a while now, and have spent most of my time researching designs. You’re right…no matter how long you research, you still always have things to learn!
July 10th, 2008
Liam,
I agree with both of your points. I love meeting new people in the industry that I can learn from.
Brad,
Thanks for the compliment!
Jamie,
Yeah, I think we all have things we’d like to do that just don’t take a priority in our busy lives. That’s a cool idea though.
July 10th, 2008
Cool that was a helpful tips, thanks for sharing this article, Im gonna love to follow the tips up there, Thank you..great job.
July 11th, 2008
What I normally do when I see some element of a site that i like, or am curious about is simply favorite it to a folder I made specifically for “design ideas”. Every so often I’ll pull one up, and based on the name I give the bookmark, I know why I saved it.
When I look at it, it’s pretty easy for me to reverse engineer it since I’m also a developer…mind you, not a designer, but a developer dealing with code and logic. This fluffy front-end stuff just sucks the life and time out of me. hahaha
So it’s nice to simply grab the CSS and relevant html and work it into what I need.
When there is image work involved, it’s not as easy as this though, of course.
Good article!
July 11th, 2008
All of the tips you mentioned: indeed a great way to learn. Another thing I suggest is to follow interesting designers on Twitter/Plurk/whatever. The great thing about this media is how open it is. I’ve recently been in touch with great designers when I had questions, people I would not get in touch with on forums or through mail.
Show them work in progress and ask their opinion, work on them from those tricks and tips. You might make a friend, but most of all, you might learn from the best where you normally wouldn’t
July 11th, 2008
thanks for sharing
I’ve mention your site on my last post on my personal blog.
July 11th, 2008
Brad sort of touched on it — blogs are a great way to learn from other designers. Vandelay is certainly one of the good ones.
The great thing about web design blogs is that not only do different ones discuss different topics (as all blogs do…) but you can also get a “feel” from the different styles. Best of all, *no* designer blog I’ve come across has a WordPress cookie-cutter design…
Other than that — if I come across a well-designed website, I’ll check the bottom for links back to the designer. Not sure if this falls into you definition of “learning from a designer” or not. But I get a lot from it, seeing different samples of their styles and learning more who they are.
~Graham
July 12th, 2008
Floated, Nice post thanks
July 12th, 2008
Useful tips. Sometimes I find designers doing crappy designs, and I remind myself “this guy needs a time machine into the present” (because he is still designing for the past).
).
Spot on about updating yourselves to the trends. The only challenge is on how to balance that and the actual design work, especially if you’re not working full time (like me, for example
July 12th, 2008
Wayne,
Thanks for sharing your process with us. It sounds like having a specific folder would be good for organization and actually being able to find it again when you need it.
Jesse,
Goo point. Twitter is a daily tool for a lot of people. I still use it in a more limited role.
Graham,
Thanks for the compliment. I also check the bottom for links to the designer from time-to-time. Sometimes I’m just curious.
Sumesh,
Time is definitely a challenge. I wish I could follow tutorials and read articles as a full-time job for about a year straight, but it’s just not possible.
July 13th, 2008
[...] first time, or you may spend a few hours Googling around trying to get everything to make sense. Vandelay Design has some good advice: One of the things that I like about web design is that there’s always [...]
July 14th, 2008
[...] tratto da: vandelaydesign.com photo credits: imaginepaolo - [...]
July 23rd, 2008
Great advice. However, I don’t add many sites to my RSS reader. Instead, if I have a site I would like to remember, I just keep it’s tab open in my Opera browser, or write it on my dry-erase board I have handy.
Most of the time when I look at a site (this one included) I think “How could I design this site?” Sometimes I even do that with fliers or billboards I see out in town. So I don’t usually interact directly with other designers, I just learn from their work.
February 19th, 2009
Great tips! I already use Google Reader but never starred anything. I vowed to finish at least one tutorial per day but these days it’s not anymore possible. After reading this I’m definitely going to star a lot of articles and one tutorial per week really sounds good. I’ll try to make it a couple of articles though. hehehe.
February 24th, 2009
Definitely a good read. The delicious tip on detailing bookmarks is certainly well taken. Along with having more contact with the design community. Time to get involved!!