UI Fundamentals for Programmers - 37 signals

After hearing the sentiments about how programmers always either shoot down design ideas or accept them only to finally implement their own version of the design specs - I felt that there is a very strong need to help them gain a perspective on UI design. I am a programmer myself and I do not have any design background whatsoever.

Here is one the of the best presentations I came across when I was initially searching for an introduction to UI design for programmers.

UI Fundamentals for Programmers by Ryan Singer from ChicagoRuby on Vimeo.

Ryan talks about how UI is not a separate layer but is a part of the software and the most important from a customer perspective. For a customer the UI is the application!

Ryan talks about the key elements of design which helped me streamline my thought process about a design.

1. Modeling

2. Screens (Inside-out Method)

3. Flows

4. Templates

I believe programmers in your companies would definitely appreciate a perspective on UI design and it would only help your future interaction with them.