Indie Developers: What the Hell Do I Do If I Can't Design UI?

My Painful Experience

This problem really bothered me for a long time. As someone who writes code, my logical thinking is decent, but when it comes to UI design, I'm completely lost. Looking at other people's beautiful product interfaces, then looking at what I made - it was truly awful.

At first, I thought about paying for a designer, but the price quotes scared me off, and communication was also troublesome. Later, I had no choice but to bite the bullet and do it myself. After countless pitfalls and redos, I finally figured out some tricks.

Now the UI of products I make might not be stunning, but at least users don't complain anymore, and sometimes I even get a few compliments.

My Core Approach: Copy Homework + Build with Blocks

Don't be embarrassed - design is all about borrowing from each other anyway. The key is to copy with skill and method.

I've summarized a few principles:

• Never start designing from scratch, directly find existing templates and components
• Keep style consistent, don't change it up every day
• Get the functionality right first, then worry about looks
• Comfortable to use is more important than looking flashy

Tool Recommendations: Get It Done Without Spending Money

Design Tools

Figma - This has to be first, the free version is sufficient. It's online, no software installation needed, and has tons of free templates. I basically just use this now - learn the basic operations and you can handle most needs.

Canva - Pretty convenient for making simple icons, banners, etc. Lots of templates, simple operation, even beginners can get started.

Sketch - Mac users can consider this, but it costs money. Skip it if budget is tight.

UI Component Libraries

Ant Design - For React projects, this is the top choice. Complete components, detailed documentation, and comprehensive design specifications. Especially suitable for admin dashboards - basically plug and play.

Material-UI - Google's Material Design style, looks quite modern. Rich components too, documentation is well written.

Tailwind UI - Component collection based on Tailwind CSS, high code quality, easy to customize. Has both free and paid options.

Chakra UI - I've been using this recently, design style is clean and modern, and very easy to customize.

Places to Find Inspiration

Dribbble - Designer hangout, all kinds of cool design works. Browse around when you have time, see the latest design trends.

Behance - Adobe's platform, project cases are quite complete, can learn a lot of design thinking.

UI Movement - Specifically collects UI animations, categorized well, very convenient to search.

Page Flows - Various product user flows, great place to learn interaction design.

My Battle-Tested Methods

Step 1: Crazy Reference Collection

Don't start drawing right away, first see how others do it. I usually collect 10-20 screenshots of similar products, then analyze their layouts, color schemes, fonts. Find commonalities and see what's different.

Recommended websites: Mobbin (mobile UI design references, categorized by function in detail), Land-book (landing page design inspiration, all kinds of styles), SaaS Pages (specifically collects SaaS product pages), Really Good UX (cases with good user experience).

Step 2: Establish Your Own Design Standards

Once you have references, set your own rules. Otherwise things get messy as you go.

Colors:

/* Primary colors */
--primary: #3b82f6; /* Blue */
--secondary: #10b981; /* Green */
--accent: #f59e0b; /* Orange */

/* Gray scale */
--gray-50: #f9fafb;
--gray-100: #f3f4f6;
--gray-500: #6b7280;
--gray-900: #111827;

/* Status colors */
--success: #10b981;
--warning: #f59e0b;
--error: #ef4444;

Font sizes:

--text-xs: 12px;
--text-sm: 14px;
--text-base: 16px;
--text-lg: 18px;
--text-xl: 20px;
--text-2xl: 24px;
--text-3xl: 30px;

--font-normal: 400;
--font-medium: 500;
--font-semibold: 600;
--font-bold: 700;

Spacing:

--space-1: 4px;
--space-2: 8px;
--space-3: 12px;
--space-4: 16px;
--space-6: 24px;
--space-8: 32px;
--space-12: 48px;

Step 3: Component-Based Thinking

Break the interface into pieces and tackle them separately. Basic components: buttons, input fields, cards, navigation. Complex components: forms, lists, modals, page layouts. Each component needs to consider different states, like button's normal, hover, click, disabled states.

Three Getting Started Approaches

Approach 1: Use Component Libraries Directly (Recommended for Beginners) - Choose a mature component library like Ant Design and directly use its components to build interfaces. Pros: quick to get started, no design background needed, complete components. Cons: limited customization, easy to look the same as others.

Approach 2: Buy Templates and Modify - Spend some money on a design template, then modify according to your needs. ThemeForest has high quality but requires payment, Creative Tim has both free and paid options, Tailwind UI component templates based on Tailwind are pretty good.

Approach 3: Reference Big Tech Design Systems - Look at Google's Material Design, Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, Microsoft's Fluent Design, learn their design thinking, then build your own component library. This takes more time but creates more distinctive results.

Common Pitfalls

Messy Color Combinations - Solution: Use existing color schemes like Material Design color palettes. Or use tools like Coolors.co, Adobe Color. Remember the 60-30-10 rule: primary color 60%, secondary color 30%, accent color 10%.

Inconsistent Font Sizes and Spacing - Solution: Set standards and strictly follow them, use relative units (rem, em) instead of px.

Poor Responsive Design - Solution: Mobile-first design, use CSS Grid and Flexbox more, if all else fails use frameworks like Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS.

Missing Interaction Details - Solution: Remember to add hover, focus, active states, use appropriate animations and transitions, give users clear feedback.

Advanced Techniques

Cultivate Aesthetic Sense - Look at excellent design works more. Follow some excellent designers on Dribbble, Behance, read UX/UI related articles on Medium, annual design trend reports are also worth reading.

User Testing - Don't just admire your own work after designing, find a few friends to try it out, observe their operations, see where they get stuck. Record the screen if possible, analyze problem points later.

Data-Driven - Use data to guide design decisions. Look at page dwell time, conversion rates, where users drop off, use heat maps to analyze user behavior.

Projects I've Done

SaaS Admin Dashboard (React + Ant Design + Custom Theme) - Directly used Ant Design components at the time, only changed primary colors and border radius. Focused on information architecture and user flows, didn't spend too much time on visuals. Result: users said the interface was professional and operations were smooth. Development efficiency was also high.

Personal Portfolio Website (Next.js + Tailwind CSS + Framer Motion) - Referenced some portfolio designs on Dribbble, quickly implemented with Tailwind. Added some animation effects, looked pretty good. Several friends said it looked quite professional, and loading speed was fast.

WeChat Mini Program (WeChat Mini Program + WeUI + Custom Components) - Strictly followed WeChat's design specifications, maintained consistency with WeChat ecosystem. Focused on optimizing operation flows, reducing user learning costs. Result: users got started quickly, and review passed smoothly.

Tools and Resources Summary

Essential Tools: Figma (interface design), VS Code (coding), Chrome DevTools (debugging and optimization)

Design Resources: Unsplash (free high-quality images), Iconify (massive free icons), Google Fonts (free fonts), Lottie (animation effects)

Learning Resources: YouTube (various design tutorials), Coursera/Udemy (systematic design courses), designer blogs (first-hand experience sharing)

Final Words

As an indie developer, getting UI design to 80% is enough, don't pursue perfection. Put more energy into product functionality and user experience.

Design is a skill that requires continuous learning. Spend some time every day looking at excellent works, and you'll gradually develop a feel for it.

Remember, looking good isn't the goal - being useful is king. Interfaces should serve user needs, don't design just to show off.

Most importantly, don't overthink it, just start doing. Learning through practice is more useful than reading a hundred tutorials.

We tech people have advantages in logical thinking and execution. Apply these to design, and we can still make good products.

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What pitfalls have you encountered in UI design? Any useful tools to recommend? Let's chat in the comments!