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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?

#31

Post by rkangel »

demarq wrote: post #18

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…

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

A good framework and set of components can help a lot though. I'm building a mobile app at the moment using flutter, and the material components in that make it so much more efficient to build nice looking things that work well. Animated transitions between screens for instance can be really fiddly, but flutter has support for some useful ones out of the box using 'hero' widgets.

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

#32

Post by bananatron »

Frameworks like tachyons and bulma will give you the tools to create elements that don't look terrible, but imo UX just takes practice. (I'm using tachyons on my side project http://oozesaga.com (the UX is still pretty bad))

The great thing about practicing this as a developer is that you will eventually find a sweet spot where you can identify UI that is cheaper to build, but is also effective (vs. having to do pixel perfect designs where the last 10% doubles development time).

And, in the end, mostly copying other sites that follow similar functional requirements will get you a long way.

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

#33

Post by jermaustin1 »

pharaohgeek wrote: post #7

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.

I will sometimes buy themes before I even have a project in mind. For $20-60 you can't beat something that just works and now you just need to inject your code into it.

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

#34

Post by spunker540 »

maceurt wrote: post #26
InGodsName wrote: post #3

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 som…

Bootstrap is so antiquated. It is also far from easy, and even if you learn a lot about bootstrap is will not make your project suddenly look good. Not to mention the container system is one of the most confusing things I have ever seen, but maybe that is just me.

What would you recommend in its place? I’ve been using bootstrap for any web side projects of mine mostly for its ability to flex and handle multiple devices sizes and also because its defaults look passable out of the box.

I agree containers are confusing but honestly making a custom web app look good on all resolutions/aspect ratios is complicated in my opinion.

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

#35

Post by projectramo »

maceurt wrote: post #26
InGodsName wrote: post #3

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 som…

Bootstrap is so antiquated. It is also far from easy, and even if you learn a lot about bootstrap is will not make your project suddenly look good. Not to mention the container system is one of the most confusing things I have ever seen, but maybe that is just me.

What would you recommend instead?

Note the criterion here is speed, not modernity or aesthetics.

Edit: by speed, I mean speed of development, or ease of development.

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

#36

Post by mmmeff »

leandot wrote: post #21

I've discovered that https://tailwindcss.com/docs/what-is-tailwind/ fits me best as a way to do UX/UI as a backend person. Feels like functional programming with well-defined, limited number of building blocks, whereas normal CSS styling always seemed like endless amount of options. Also the docs are really great with some ready-made patterns. No idea if it is for everyone but I enjoy it right now.

Frameworks like these are terrible for your document size and page load performance once your project scales.

Why would you write anything that can't scale if you can avoid it? Whether or not you're looking to turn your pet project into a SAAS business is a moot point when you can get scalability for free with other approaches.

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

#38

Post by brunoc »

mmmeff wrote: post #36
leandot wrote: post #21

I've discovered that https://tailwindcss.com/docs/what-is-tailwind/ fits me best as a way to do UX/UI as a backend person. Feels like functional programming with well-defined, limited number of building blocks, whereas normal CSS styling always seemed like endless amount of options. Also the docs are really great with some ready-made patterns. No idea if it is for everyone but I enjoy it right now.

Frameworks like these are terrible for your document size and page load performance once your project scales. Why would you write anything that can't scale if you can avoid it? Whether or not you're looking to turn your pet project into a SAAS business is a moot point when you can get scalability for free with other approaches.

How? This is a tiny functional CSS library.

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

#39

Post by Midnightas »

projectramo wrote: post #35
maceurt wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bootstrap is so antiquated. It is also far from easy, and even if you learn a lot about bootstrap is will not make your project suddenly look good. Not to mention the container system is one of the most confusing things I have ever seen, but maybe that is just me.

What would you recommend instead? Note the criterion here is speed, not modernity or aesthetics. Edit: by speed, I mean speed of development, or ease of development.

Speed? Do it yourself, you only add what you need, no need to bloat the styles with anything you're not going to use.

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

#40

Post by ehnto »

mschaef wrote: post #30

I stick with a few basic guidelines: * Sketch out the idea on literal paper before committing it to working code. Paper is so much easier to get 'working'. * Borrow visually from other sites that I like and have similar intent. I don't have the time on side projects to go crazy breaking new UX ground. (And users probably don't want that anyway.) * Keep the idea simple and uncluttered. Maybe a specialist could get awa…

I skip the draft step, but otherwise I am very similar.

Simple, extremely lean and functional tooling and extremely simplified frontend functionality.

If I can achieve good UX with CSS media queries and a light dusting of vanilla JS then that is all I will use. I also leverage new browser features where possible. The datepicker in some browsers suck, but it is native and I don't have to maintain it.

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