Design

So I got about 60% of one app working on my iPhone to a satisfactory extent. I still need to add a couple of features before it can used as an app. I thought this is perhaps a good time to think about and generally fix the horrible UI that I have created so far. Thinking about it, I suck so bad at UI that I have never written a GUI application all my life. I briefly dabbed with GTK, PyGTK, PyQT, Tk-Wish, WxWidgets and a bunch of others (including VB and VC++). I failed at each one of them. As in the buttons usually clicked and the labels and tables got updated as needed always. But I was never proud of how it looked. I almost hated myself for this failure. But then I stumbled upon websites of many programmers (friends, some times stuff that I just stumble upon) and found that most of them were really bad. And they didn’t seem to have a problem with it. That is when I started feeling very good about myself – at least I could see that my work is not presentable, even if it was worth presenting. ...

I sometimes wonder if I should just enroll and do a certificate course in UX. UX, not UI – my visual sensibilities are a tad retarded, but I am good at spotting failures. And I love research. I may not be the best guy to talk to people yet, but I haven’t tried that first hand as well. So maybe I can learn. I think UX is a very interesting topic. A good understanding of the principles and knowledge of how to apply them to a system/product/solution/problem at hand is an immensely useful skill to have. Of course, I don’t think it will fetch me any salary to start, but maybe I will be good at it. And If I am good, then I think I can get closer to the design field that I believe is the next most important horizontal going forward. ...

I tried to think about it a lot. Honestly, nothing. Yes, I do worry about terrorism, about women’s safety in India, about general social inequality at times. But I find myself more worried about my career, the stupid choices I have been making etc. Other than this, the only problems that I think about are : those that I believe can help me startup and those that I feel are really bad designs. Those that I believe can help me startup are few and rare, and mostly an existing product delta. Those that I believe are flawed designs are a tonne. Basically because I am opinionated and also because they are not designed so well. ...