Ask IH: Design as a programmer

The short answer is you outsource it. There are a lot of designers on freelancing platforms. I'd advice not to ask them to design a certain page but rather certain type of pages (e.g one landing, one content and one form). Then you have an asset collection that you can reuse.

The long answer is to try to get better at designing. My strategy for learning to design was copying. Not stealing, but copying. Years ago I decided to become a graphic designer and all I did for 3 months was to copy logos from dribbble and other platforms.

Try to find some books to read about the essentials of designing. Don't focus on the tools but rather the principle of design.

You've mentioned Photoshop and I wanted to comment on that. First I learned Illustrator before I moved on to html and css. At the beginning I felt the need to use Illustrator before I do anything in html. At some point I realized that it takes me 80% more time to alter the design in illustrator than with plain CSS. Since then I moved away from Illustrator and just sketch a few boxes on a piece of paper.

Regarding bootstrap. You're not bound to use their styles and if you pay attention to the docs it becomes really easy to override their styles.

Oh yeah... read this: https://builttoadapt.io/intro-to-the-8-point-grid-system-d2573cde8632

It saved me a lot of pain with trying to align things in a page.

Good luck!

I generally try to use pre-existing libraries like Bootstrap or Primer (GitHub's very Bootstrap-like framework). I've read a few design books (The Non-Designer's Design Book, Don't Make Me Think) which helped.

I don't use Photoshop -- depending on the complexity of what I'm trying to create I will just start building it in-place or lay it out with Jekyll and Liquid templates, which I use to generate a bunch of fake example data. That way I can convert those templates pretty directly to whatever I'm using.

I generally focus on trying to make things very usable, rather than worrying about things like color schemes myself. I don't think unique graphics are that important and it's more of a distraction...you can always hire a designer to do it over after you get rich.

When it comes to design I can draw a pretty awesome stick figure, but that's about it, so when I start a new project I usually use Bootstrap and try to focus on layout instead of designing all the bells and whistles. Sometimes I do get caught up in tweaking a small section of the page and I have to stop and ask myself: "Will my users really care if this button has 4px or 10px of shadow?"

I've purchased from Envato as well. You get a great re-usable design and all you need is to put in the content. I have a few of these templates that I use for landing pages.

In the end you can always compare your site to how these other sites looked when they started out:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6125914/How-20-popular-websites-looked-when-they-launched.html

As other answers tell you: you must focus on providing value to customers with your product. At this point, design can only help you ordering and/or aligning your value proposition (MVP) with your business vision. Everything else is secondary.

Speaking of design specifically, you should focus on the general structure/layout of the product. If your product is digital, forget about Photoshop and go directly to HTML/CSS. And if Bootstrap looks too generic (it's, clearly), try another of the hundreds of free libraries that exists. You can check some in my repository: https://github.com/tipoqueno/awesome-ui#libraries--frameworks

Don't worry about visual design at the beginning: what we all look for as users at the beginning of a relationship with a brand is value for our lives.

Try to learn. It has taken me so long and a lot of practice, but I'm getting a better eye for it.

Quick tips:

1. Use vectors, not PNGs or JPGs -- so try to utilize Illustrator or Sketch (I bought Sketch).
2. Take reference from some websites here that you like the design of. Remember, this is just like coding -- don't reinvent the wheel. If you like someone's design, try to mimic it without completely ripping it off.
3. Use websites like awwwards.com and uplabs.com.
4. Use code snippets from codepen and stuff. People make some really great stuff that you an use to make things look pretty.