A lot of engineers have the mentality of "engineering is hard, but design is just whatever some color matching and styling".
I'll prob. be downvoted but here's my honest opinion: I think you'll gain a lot career-wise to learn about UX and UI. You'll be able to understand products in a deeper level from the customer's side and will then be able to make better decisions as an engineer. You'll also have a much easier time working with designers and PMs. And, of course, your projects will feel and look great.
IMHO, the biggest bang for the buck you could learn is:
- Visual hierarchy (I.e. the same way you divide your code in modules and functions, you need to divide the visual space in a clear hierarchy).
- Basic on typography (It makes a big difference even if most people don't notice it)
- Understanding what's UX (I.e. reading "Don't make me think"). Just "caring" and "thinking" about UX will improve designs, even if you don't have much experience.
- Basic of color theory; How different colors mean different things (Branding-wise or for alerts/errors/warning).
Reading material design from Google
https://material.io is a great start. You may not like the UI of it, but the UX and explanations of
why things are this way are really interesting.
I'll prob. be downvoted but here's my honest opinion: I think you'll gain a lot career-wise to learn about UX and UI. You'll be able to understand products in a deeper level from the customer's side and will then be able to make better decisions as an engineer. You'll also have a much easier time working with designers and PMs. And, of course, your projects will feel and look great.
IMHO, the biggest bang for the buck you could learn is:
Reading material design from Google https://material.io is a great start. You may not like the UI of it, but the UX and explanations of why things are this way are really interesting.