Ask HN: How can I improve UI dev skills? Looking for real-world examples
18 points by im_lince 2 days ago | 11 comments
I’m currently working on improving my design skills, especially in the area of UI/UX. This week, my focus is on understanding how great products develop and manage their user interfaces.
I have a few questions that I’d love some insight on:
What key design principles do great products follow when building their UI? How do they handle large components in their interface while maintaining usability and consistency? Any best practices or resources you'd recommend for tackling complex UI/UX challenges?
austin-cheney 2 hours ago | next |
Try looking at my prior personal project: https://github.com/prettydiff/share-file-systems
Imagine loading a large dynamically populated page in the browser with state restoration fully executed as faster than 80ms. I describe that in great detail here: https://github.com/prettydiff/wisdom
I built an original test automation engine for that application because I needed something that supported command and control across multiple computers in the browser for a peer-to-peer environment. On just a single computer it achieved 300 points of evaluation in less that 8 seconds with full file system execution from the browser.
The application also demonstrated an OS-like GUI in the browser that achieved accessibility with full file system display.
Here are the key insights I employed:
* Less is more. Focus on architecture with an obsession on simplicity and reuse even if greatly inconvenient. That often required an irrationally high level of refactoring.
* Speed is an understanding of tree models and transmission and nothing more. Always navigate tree models where they are available, such as the file system and the DOM, in preference to string parsing. String parsing, in any form, is a performance killer. Binary payloads and bidirectional communication are vastly superior to HTTP in every conceivable scenario.
* Other UI developers are cowardly. Don’t let that limit your ambition. Don’t listen to a bunch of bullshit cliches. Measure things and execute according to evidence. Reinvent absolute everything you see fit, and yes it will make other UI developers cry. Real world users don’t care about the sad tears of your peers.