When I saw that palette it felt so familiar, then I started reading:
> Adapted from our book and video series, Refactoring UI.
Well yeah, this explains it, as I have bought (and read!) the book a while ago. The book isn't too extensive, but I don't regret any penny spent on it. Actually, I revisit it from time to time to internalize the lessons.
I actually toyed with asking for a refund on this book (though in the end I decided not to).
Except the palette chapter, it doesn't help you build an aesthetically pleasing design from the ground up. All the examples are about making "meh" design better - but many of us back-end developers would be over the moon if we were able to make "meh" design in the first place.
It's also really only helpful for designing 'webform'-style applications (where the main purpose is structuring a lot of information). There are no general principles of design that that would be applicable to something like an interactive mobile application.
I'm not bagging the book, I still think it's quite good for what it is and I did find it modestly useful (which is why I didn't request a refund).
But rightly or wrongly, I thought it would be a good introduction to the fundamentals of visual design, which it mostly isn't.
> many of us back-end developers would be over the moon if we were able to make "meh" design in the first place
> I thought it would be a good introduction to the fundamentals of visual design
I can relate, so a recommendation from me may be a case of the blind leading the blind, but the best such book I've seen is The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams (the writer, not the actor). (It's up to four editions now but get any one; mostly only the examples change.)
The second half of the book is about type, and the first half is organized around four principles: Contrast–Repetition–Alignment–Proximity, leading to a memorable acronym that you may have found elsewhere but whose origin is this book. She starts with examples of designing things like brochures and flyers, but IMO if you remember to apply those 4 principles as illustrated in the book, you go from “ugh, I don't know why this looks ugly” design to pretty effective design.
> Adapted from our book and video series, Refactoring UI.
Well yeah, this explains it, as I have bought (and read!) the book a while ago. The book isn't too extensive, but I don't regret any penny spent on it. Actually, I revisit it from time to time to internalize the lessons.