Ask HN: How do you make your websites/apps beautiful? What tools do you use?

#1

Post by mmdoda » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 8:09 PM UTC

I am on the cusp of finishing my first side-project, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to make it appealing. Even though I can easily implement functionality in React, on the design side of things I don't know what to do aside from throwing together some components from different libraries.

What do you guys use? Got any tips?

Re: Ask HN: How do you make your websites/apps beautiful? What tools do you use?

#2

Post by julienreszka » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 8:45 PM UTC

You could look at some codepens for inspiration

Re: Ask HN: How do you make your websites/apps beautiful? What tools do you use?

#3

Post by jabo » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 8:53 PM UTC

This is a pretty good book on the topic: https://www.refactoringui.com/

Re: Ask HN: How do you make your websites/apps beautiful? What tools do you use?

#4

Post by PinkPigeon » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 8:58 PM UTC

Funnily enough, I guess I use my own website builder to do this.

Re: Ask HN: How do you make your websites/apps beautiful? What tools do you use?

#5

Post by egfx » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 11:55 PM UTC

> throwing together some components from different libraries

That's actually a winning strategy.

Re: Ask HN: How do you make your websites/apps beautiful? What tools do you use?

#6

Post by cercatrova » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 2:35 AM UTC

Have you been to Dribbble, Behance and other design sites? They have great inspiration for me.

Re: Ask HN: How do you make your websites/apps beautiful? What tools do you use?

#7

Post by yen223 » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 3:53 AM UTC

jabo wrote: post #3

This is a pretty good book on the topic: https://www.refactoringui.com/

+1 for the book. I can also recommend TailwindCSS, which is a CSS framework by the same guys behind Refactoring UI.

Re: Ask HN: How do you make your websites/apps beautiful? What tools do you use?

#8

Post by m33k44 » Fri, Jun 04, 2021, 9:58 AM UTC

The way I do it is, use "raw" bootstrap+jquery* for development. And before deplyoing, use themes for beautification e.g. https://bootswatch.com

* I am not a front-end developer, so I use the easiest tools for the job.

Re: Ask HN: How do you make your websites/apps beautiful? What tools do you use?

#9

Post by zzo38computer » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 12:15 AM UTC

I don't make them "beautiful"; I like to make them compact and workable, with everything relevant displayed in a compact format, and to put the rest in the documentation.

Show what you have and then see if it looks like good or not, I suppose. Maybe it is good for whatever it is being done or maybe not, depending what you are making, I suppose.

Re: Ask HN: How do you make your websites/apps beautiful? What tools do you use?

#10

Post by donnanorton » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 8:28 AM UTC

Website should be well designed. Good colors catch the eye, and provide an instant layer of communication. Even before the conscious mind has started thinking, the subconscious has already assessed if something is interesting or not. Purely based on colors.