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Ask HN: How do you manage UI/UX for your side projects?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you manage UI/UX for your side projects?

#12

Post by dmortin »

I try to use frameworks which contain building blocks, so I can just use existing functional elements (like Alert in Bootstrap, etc.) without having to come up with my own css rules.

Obviously, this works only if you don't need any custom elements, but I'm not a designer, so I just usually use what's available.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage UI/UX for your side projects?

#13

Post by robbick »

You are right to be concerned - so many side projects don't gain traction due to simple UI issues putting users off.

1. As other comments have mentioned - if you are willing to pay, a good designer will go a long way.

2. Use a common component library with a custom theme so it is good code but not 100% the same as elsewhere

3. Keep lots of whitespace between everything

4. Keep it simple - good UX is about so much more than UI and feature creep is so often the enemy of good UX

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage UI/UX for your side projects?

#15

Post by bgorman »

I would use a "Component" front end framework like Material-UI or Blueprint, that way you can avoid spending your time on CSS/JS issues and spend most of your time building the application. The downside is that your application will look like the component framework you select.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage UI/UX for your side projects?

#16

Post by swaggyBoatswain »

I've been exploring the world of UI/UX recently, and I enjoy it.

It would be helpful to pickup a design tool. I've used figma and sketch, but I'm finding figma to be really helpful.

------------------------------------------------------------------

How I think of things is like this:

1. Either my entire day is dedicated to design

2. Or its dedicated to programming

------------------------------------------------------------------

I find it difficult to swap between design / programming frequently. One requires creativity / looking at lots of things for inspiration. The other requires a more logical mindset.

I would go further with this analogy, there's (4) main roles in webapp development

(1) UI/UX/Design

(2) Frontend Frameworking (React,HTML/CSS/JS/mocking things up, etc)

(3) Backend development (Firebase, nodeJS, etc)

(4) Database development / sysadmin / everything else

Try and only focus on one or two or those things everyday. You can skip (1) if you are emulating a website or building something with a heavy backend MVP. (3) and (4) can be mostly skipped if making a small project in firebase. (2) can be skipped if you use a CSS framework, etc.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage UI/UX for your side projects?

#17

Post by vthallam »

This is definitely a problem for a lot of people. When I was in grad school, I used to go to Hackathons a lot, build a cool working backend, but a ugly front end which just does the job and I never won anything until I forced myself to learn Angular and used bootstrap themes to scaffold a basic UI/UX.

Unless you have a friend who happens to be a front end engineer and who wants to work on side projects along with you, the best solution is to learn just enough to get by. Learn react or angular and learn how to customize existing free themes available out there.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage UI/UX for your side projects?

#18

Post by demarq »

The mistake that a lot of people make is thinking that it's a code/framework/tech problem it isn't.

Start by putting the technology aside, it only serves to bring your idea to life. Which bring us to the ideas...

Ideas are never 100% original. I challenge you to imagine an object of a shape and color not made from anything you've ever seen... it's impossible. What I'm saying is that you need to take inspiration from various sources. From this you'll be able to bring these elements together in a new way.

So I'd suggest looking at http://collectui.com/ and https://colorhunt.co/ to start.

Come up with a design in Illustrator/Designer and pretend HTML CSS REACT etc don't exist (ignore them).

Finally look at what you have created and realise you can bring that to life using literally any technology you like.

Mock out your components in HTML CSS.

create react/vue/angular components and port your previous HTML/CSS into these.

And Voila!

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage UI/UX for your side projects?

#19

Post by asien »

>Like a lot of you I have mostly worked in back-end or systems software. My CSS/UI/UX skills are very minimal.

I never came up with a special talent for UI/UX. I remember I had a friend who was web developer he was insanely talented , could make a sexy landing page in just a few minutes.

For me this has always been impossible , I immediately start thinking about optimizations, legacy browser support , CI/CD etc... Typical issues of system driven person....

A few years ago I realized I wasn’t like him and it was « Okay ».

I found out I can’t do « many side projects » at once nor frequently.

Instead I only build one project at a time but I do it properly. I design things out in Photoshop or Adobe XD where I usually spend weeks before coding anything.

The goal is really to be working in pure V Cycle where you don’t start Prototype unless you are done with the design.

Been using this technique ever since and I haven’t been frustrated ever since. Would recommend to try it with any design software that you like to work with.

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