# Design for Hackers: Reverse-Engineering Beauty

![rw-book-cover](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/media/reader/parsed_document_assets/217096753/WmIOsYIp0shutXwNvNXc7mhg680LwQ9_4piOhun850Q-co_sOgFg84.xhtml)

## Metadata
- Author: [[David Kadavy]]
- Full Title: Design for Hackers: Reverse-Engineering Beauty
- Category: #books
> [!tldr]
> Many people lack design literacy, which leads to miscommunication through poor font and color choices. Design is influenced by economic factors and technology, affecting how we create and perceive visual content. Understanding color relationships and design conventions can enhance web design and improve user experience.

## Highlights
Today I understand that at the root of my educators’ intentions was something valuable: Clear communication is critical to success. [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jajetmrhkjrhaf773k1j857e))

“Design is this mysterious thing. The people who know it can’t seem to explain it. It’s like if you want them to teach you something about design, they just chalk it up to talent.” [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jajexavy2eyh0kcxqqv7rnkt))

But few of us are design literate. Sure, matters of design taste are starting to creep into our world. There are backlashes over ugly fonts, such as Comic Sans (see Chapter 3). Much like having poor handwriting, not having design literacy results in miscommunication. Fonts, colors, layout, and the proper use of white space all affect how our message is conveyed, and nearly all of us have the ability to manipulate these factors. The world is in need of design literacy. [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jajf3d2f92wgn9gkxv65j1mz))

Though the term hacker originated at MIT in the 1960s and was used to refer to a particular group of computer and software enthusiasts, to many, the term has a broader meaning. An article by Eric Steven Raymond entitled “How to Become a Hacker” (`[www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html](http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html)`) presents five tenets of the hacker attitude:
> The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.
> No problem should ever have to be solved twice.
> Boredom and drudgery are evil.
> Freedom is good.
> Attitude is no substitute for competence. [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jajfb29ndk9q7z1rqntvw9b9)) [[quotes]] 

In short, a hacker values knowledge and learns whatever he needs to learn to achieve his vision. In today’s world, that often means learning at least a little coding, but the hacker attitude can be applied to problem solving of all kinds.
People who live by the hacker attitude are curious. They do whatever it takes to achieve their visions. They’re entrepreneurial. They value skills and knowledge over titles and experience. [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jajfc8aecks22d85m95ewxv7)) [[quotes]] 

The main reason for the difficulty in learning design is probably that designers tend to have difficulty articulating the process through which they make decisions. Many designers are, in fact, born with some degree of innate talent and interest in design, and, through countless hours of practice and experimentation, they’ve developed their particular approach to design. As a result, much of the design advice that exists is either too simple or too complicated. Have you ever heard anyone tell you simply to “use white space,” for example? If you don’t get it, she may just shrug her shoulders and say that she was just born knowing how to design. [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jajfj67eah8paq6hp50dqsy7))

Steve Jobs once said, “In most people’s vocabularies, design is a veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product.” [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jajfwk6e9y1x88mp9yeqyxnv)) [[quotes]] 

The point is that to truly be adept at designing something, you have to understand how it works. You have to understand the nature of what you’re building, how what you’re building is perceived, and how you can use your tools to make your vision happen. Otherwise, you aren’t designing. You’re creating a veneer. You’re drawing ponies. Don’t draw ponies. [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jajgbx6a0sg4wqfp0enyyxjx))

In psychology, these shortcuts are called heuristics. Heuristics help us solve complex problems and make complex decisions by using “rules” that are either programmed into us by evolution or learned from our own experiences. [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jajgds6stcbxdfx2670fapjg))

It turns out, in all these cases, design is the single most important heuristic we process when deciding whether a site is credible. [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jajgfb1ymn3ntdjk15vsb3pq))

But just as drawing a pretty pony doesn’t make you a good artist, creating a pretty website doesn’t make you a good designer. Participants were skeptical of sites that looked inappropriately polished, giving negative comments suggesting that certain sites looked as if they were “designed by a marketing team.” [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jajgjazwj25yzpn9z3aesqxp))

So, together, the visual look of a site – along with the way the information was organized – accounted for nearly 75 percent of all comments about whether participants trusted a site or not. Moreover, the participants’ comments were sensitive to design that was inappropriate for the site in question. [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jajgky0acmsqzzvtjzgzh8qd))

