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

#1

Post by break_the_bank » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 1:41 PM UTC

Like a lot of you I have mostly worked in back-end or systems software. My CSS/UI/UX skills are very minimal. I get disheartened by how my project looks or don't start the project because I fear it would look crap or I despise doing the UI/UX work.

How do I solve this?

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

#2

Post by projectramo » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 2:11 PM UTC

I am in the same boat. I try to use the same basic look and feel and interface everywhere. I just use whatever formatting the framework comes with and then I might ask someone else to step in and give me css and logos etc later.

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

#3

Post by InGodsName » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 2:12 PM UTC

I've multiple solutions:

0. Use a css framework like Bootstrap or Bulma, it's not difficult to put together a website/webapp with a bit of CSS skills (you don't need to know a lot of CSS to create a good experience)

1. Team up with the UI/UX designer who you've worked in past and offer them your backend expertise for their project.

Good ol barter has saved my ass multiple times by now.

2. If you don't want to get someone from your workplace, you can go on upwork etc...and hire a freelancer, it's a paid option.

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

#4

Post by bloma » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 2:13 PM UTC

If you want to talk about it, feel free to contact me

Edit: I am a UI/UX designer, would like to talk to anyone on this matter. I would actually like to team up with someone to work on some project (but not necessarily). I'm kinda a perfectionist, I don't like WordPress or ready-to-use themes/CSS-frameworks and I like things original, optimized, useful and beautiful from both inside and outside

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

#5

Post by te_chris » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 2:13 PM UTC

For side projects, I always try and get as far as I can with a CSS UI framework, then ask friends for help. It's much easier to brief people if you have a woring prototype.

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

#6

Post by markessien » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 2:15 PM UTC

I know a bunch of UI/UX folk, and I tend to just ping them if I have anything to design. Works quite well - many people will do a lot of short term work in exchange for pay.

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

#7

Post by pharaohgeek » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 2:15 PM UTC

If we're talking webapps, I tend to go to https://themeforest.net and buy HTML themes developed by professional designers. The cost is MUCH cheaper than hiring someone to develop the UI for you, and a lot of them are extremely high quality.

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

#8

Post by clagio » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 2:15 PM UTC

Use a service like http://draftss.com/ or http://manypixels.co/ They provide a good value for the price. Alternatively, hire a designer accordingly to your budget

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

#9

Post by kowdermeister » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 2:16 PM UTC

For UI problems, grab or buy a UI toolkit, it's better than you trying to write one from scratch.

For UX, read about UX research and show your work to potential users, make them talk constantly and just listen, see them struggle. It's priceless.

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

#10

Post by jabart » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 2:20 PM UTC

Adobe XD is part of their creative cloud offering and they publish themes and videos about the design process. It is really easy to mockup a real looking web page in XD, then use a favorite CSS framework to create it.

Also themeforest.net is great too, pharaohgeek mentioned that already, but that is also a great starting point as good themes look more like bootstrap documentation to give you a huge head start versus from scratch.