Engineering Esthetics

Boris Nadion
boris@astrails.com
@borisnadion
Boris Nadion
90s / 100 / 2005
partner at Astrails, Ruby On Rails consultancy
idea
coffee shop napkin sketches
thousands of users
disclaimer
I'm not a designer
Developers

Designers

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lack of shared knowledge
who are you?
care of different aspects
conflict of interest
designers
automagically
BS
together
great
engineered and designed
esthetic
daily job
hardware
software
proper framework
happy
2 sizes of the same coin
similar
architecture
engineers
design language
designers
naming conventions
engineers
style guides
designers
code duplication
engineers
identity crisis
designers
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long methods
engineers
short-term memory loss
designers
teach designers to code
understand design
engineered
How I Learned to
Stop Worrying and
Love Design

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1366197248/tt0057012?ref_=ttmi_mi_all_sf_6
2 words
in german and dutch
formgeben
form giving
entwurf
planning
design
method of solving visual or physical problems
graphic design
http://www.miltonglaser.com/the-work/444/columbia-records-poster-for-bob-dylans-greatest-hits-1975/
print design
interaction design
UI design
attention
UX design
industrial design
key differentiator
Cal by Any.do
contribute
planning - implementing - testing&debugging
engineering
sketching - design - interaction
design
define goals
sketching
generate ideas, identify complexity
http://www.fiftythree.com/pencil
http://www.fiftythree.com/paper
wireframing
functional
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Profilewireframe.png
grouping
design wireframe
https://github.com/jglovier/microframe
sketch
functional
wireframes

UI design
design
wireframes
choose layout
grid, wizard, dashboard, gallery, etc
maintain consistency
avoid identity crisis
testing
visual design
• color
• typography
• rhythm
green
yellow
red
target audience
fonts
serif

sans-serif
information
information
information
information
rhythm
consistent spacing and calculable sizes
@font-size-base:
@font-size-delta:

14px;
8px;

!
p {
padding: @font-size-delta 0;
}

!
// 50px - heading size
.font-huge {
font-size: floor(@font-size-base * 3 + @font-size-delta);
}

!
// 36px - titles
.font-big {
font-size: floor(@font-size-base * 2 + @font-size-delta);
}

!
// 22px - subtitles
.font-medium {
font-size: floor(@font-size-base + @font-size-delta);
}
grid
//== Grid system
//
!

@grid-columns:

12;

!

//** Padding between columns. Gets divided in half
//** for the left and right.
@grid-gutter-width:
30px;
establishing a hierarchy
motion and visual effects
status of the current action, visual feedback, orient the user
design patters
well known and recognizable UI elements and animations
http://pttrns.com/
how it works
engineers <=> designers
esthetics
Developers

Designers

As seen by
Developers
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As seen by
Designers

http://bit.ly/war-developers
Developers

Designers

As seen by
Developers

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As seen by
Designers

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As seen by
Project Managers

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Project Managers
thank you!

Boris Nadion
boris@astrails.com
@borisnadion

Engineering esthetics