Friday 26 December 2014

The Designer in the Programmer

As a programmer, you mostly spend a lot of time creating specific functions for a product. But at times, you have to create the interface as well. Although the function and the interface seem to go hand in hand, and they usually do, a separate set of skills and mind set is needed in creating them.

This post introduces the programmer to some graphic design aspects of interface building and useful resources that can be found on the web.

It is very likely that you’ll need some icons and images on your interface. You can get a designer to create specific images for you. Or you can browse through the many different online resources to buy the ones you need. Some of them include istockphoto, shutterstock, fotolia and gettyimages.

If paying for a designer or buying images is not an option, you can browse through some icons that are offered free by some websites including:


Most of these have a license agreement that usually states that you have to mention the source in your product. Be sure to read the license in details before using them.

And if you can’t find a unique image you’re after, and can’t pay for the services of a graphic designer, you can create your own (or attempt to). Photoshop is the most widely used graphic design program, but an open source alternative is Gimp.

Once you have all the required images and icons, then comes layout, navigation, consistency, structure and many others. Tips for a good interface design can be found on this Creative Bloq post.

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