Ask HN: How can a seasoned developer approach design and be good enough?

For prototyping or even some beta products any popular css/js framework would do. You should've heard about bootstrap.io, just make sure at the end when you go public, customize it a bit.. so it won;t look like other dozens of websites.

First of all, stay away from Bootstrap. Learn the basics first then get yourself familiar with Photoshop. You can learn the basics by reading books like "The non-designer's design book", "Design Basics" or something similar.

Then go pick out well designed websites and try to recreate it with Photoshop. You can use Dribbble for this. Try to pay attention to every pixel and recreate it exactly as you see it, or it'll most likely end up ugly. After a while you can try to add your own stuff onto it.

After doing this for some time, you'll have learned how to do simple stuff with Photoshop, you'll have learned what kind of layouts each type of website uses and you'll be able to use these layouts for your own projects. You'll learn how to effectively apply subtle effects and much more.

Basically, the fastest way to become good at design is to copy other people's design.

Also, remember that anything you design at first will probably look ugly, but you need to keep tweaking it until you find something that looks good.

I can only tell you what worked for me. Get a copy of The Non-Designer's Design Book (http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-Willia...) to learn the basics. Then practice, practice, practice. Design something, then try to figure out what you don't like about it. Use the concepts from the book to describe how it falls short. Throw it away and try again with something else. Eventually it'll just start coming naturally, much like programming did once upon a time.

I asked myself the same question around 6 months ago, so I talked to the most talented designer I know and asked him for a list of the most influential books he had read whilst developing his skills.

Here is the list, in the order he recommended reading them:

Creative Process: http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/140...

Design Thinking: http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Rand-A-Designer%60s-Art/dp/030008...

Typography: http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-Designers-Critical-Stude...

Spatial Relationships - Grids: http://www.amazon.com/Making-Breaking-Grid-Graphic-Workshop/...

Reduction: http://www.amazon.com/Symbol-Steven-Bateman/dp/1856697274/

Color Theory: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Color-Subjective- Experience/dp/0471289280/

Branding 101: http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Brand-Identity-Essential-Bra...

I've been making my way through the list, and it is amazing how much my approach to design has changed. Before I was winging it and was never really sure if I was making something that would look good, but now I feel like I have a solid foundation to build on.