Came to this article 7 Rules for Creating Gorgeous UI : A non-artsy primer in digital aesthetics by Erik D. Kennedy for the design tips which are excellent. The copy is hilarious and witty and made it easy to stay.
I learned the aesthetics of apps the same way I’ve learned any creative endeavor: cold, hard analysis. And shameless copying of what works. I’ve worked 10 hours on a UI project and billed for 1. The other 9 were the wild flailing of learning. Desperately searching Google and Pinterest and Dribbble for something to copy from.
These “rules” are the lessons from those hours.
- Light comes from the sky
- Black and white first [Also recommended by Mark Boulton in A practical guide to designing for the web]
- Double your whitespace
- Learn the methods of overlaying text on images (see Part 2) [This is really handy]
- Make text pop— and un-pop (see Part 2) [This too]
- Only use good fonts (see Part 2)
- Steal like an artist (see Part 2)
I think I will show this to all the developers I know. It covers off the basics and explains typography and the CRAP (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity) design principles in a simple and easy to understand way. 4 and 5 were particularly useful for typography without getting too deep into kerning, ligatures, drop caps etc. If you do want go deeper into web design then check out Mark Boulton's book Designing for the web