i can program but not design

mrtckane

mrtckane

mrtckane

Permabanned
Joined
3 Jul 2010
Posts
512
hello.

been having the same issue with my wee site for years.
I can do the php/mysql/html etc and everything works, my queries work, the scripts finish up in a timely fashion, got my security sorted, got my compatibility sorted etc.

but it looks crap, i have no concept of what looks good or how to make it look good.

i can do css just fine, but anything i do just looks crap.

it's a hobby thing to teach myself php so there's no clients, designers, devs etc. just me and a handful of members.

any ideas?
 
Hmm in my opinion im afraid you are best focusing on being one or the other. You either have the artistic flair or you dont.

Backend development and web design are essentially seperate fields and both have sizable amounts of work drawn from different skillsets.

I also suck at making things look good :p
 
IMO it's much better to be able to make things work, than make them look pretty.

It couldn't be easier to pick up a template from countless websites and hook it all together with your own code and have a beautiful website that works exactly how you want.
 
Spunkey said:
[...] make them look pretty [...]
Click to expand...
Less of the erroneous distinctions, Mr S! Designers - yes, even graphic designers - do more than prettify stuff, as well you know :p

Having said that... mrtckane: Don't worry about not knowing enough about design. If you're talking careers, development/programming pays more, is seen as a more specialist skill, and you have to deal with far fewer clients who think they can do what you do.

While this developer-heavy forum may disagree, there is more professional respect given to web devs than web designers. So stick with the typey-typey.

EDIT: oops, you weren't really after career advice, were you? Ah well. :D
 
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KISS (keep it simple) a site can look good while being minimalistic and functional. Don't try to be too creative, a nice looking border here, good layout there can make a decent looking page. Stick to pastel tones unless you know better so it doesn't scream - the only exception being headlines, etc.
 
does mentioning that it's a mobile web site alter anyone's opinions?

i'm kinda limited as to what can be done. No Ajax, No Javascript, CSS2 at best, some html tags don't work, timed refresh is impossible and redirects can be problematic.
i'm lucky that cookies actually work nowadays.

i did go for a minimilist approach, but it went awry.

now i have things, everywhere - oh my god it's a total mess.

****.
 
yeah, though my coding isn't good, my HTML/CSS is very strong. Wish I had a flair for design, once every 10 attempts i'll maybe make something half decent.
 
the simple thing to do would be to find someone who can design sites but not code them. then when they come up with a design, you can go away and make it and then you both win.

i don't think you can just quickly learn to make a well designed site especially if you're only learning for fun. you need to realise why a good design is a good design and then as you keep going at it you'll keep learning more, but you also need a good reason to push you to realise these things. say you have a site selling a certain item. you'll design it, develop it, then get 1 sale and look back and think why. realise then that the colour theme doesn't match the item, the phone number is hard to find etc. then redesign with a great location for the phone number, a great simple to use set of navigation links etc.
 
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