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Design tools for developers?

I'm a confident developer but terrible at design. Are there any tools to help with this?

I prefere not to use frameworks like Bootstrap as the makeup is quite bloated and not that customisable. Im fine working with HTML, CSS and JS, it's just the aesthetics I struggle with.

  1. 3

    Tailwind css will change your life.
    By constraining you to use a limited amount of values for everything it instantly makes your design more consistent. The added benefit is that its easily customize-able and it doesn't force you into strict design decisions like bootstrap or Bulma.
    I've been using it in production coupled with vue and it's a joy.

    Check Adam Wathan's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy1H38XrN7hi7wHSClfXPqQ/videos

    He has live streams where he's replicating popular designs using just the default config of tailwind. You'll see that it is quite powerful.

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    I prefere not to use frameworks like Bootstrap as the makeup is quite bloated and not that customisable.
    It's absolutely customizable. Tell me which part you can't customize and I show you how to customize it :)

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      I think you both have a point. Design Kit usually come with a lot of markup that you need to override. It's always customizable but can be annoying in some cases.

      I'm using Semantic UI for a React app for a few components but their CSS markup has caused a few issues in some places.

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    My recommendation is to use a UI kit, this will got a pretty long way.

    Simply by using say default bootstrap classes etc you'll have a very decent looking site.

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    If you want to learn here is how I did it (do design professionally now):

    • buy a copy of sketch app
    • go to dribble, pick out 1-2 agencies that have popular designs and that you really like
    • try to recreate their design in sketch
    • repeat

    There is a phrase: to become a master you must copy other masters...

    Recreating their designs won’t develop your own style but you will get better quickly.

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    This comment was deleted 5 years ago.

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      +1 The refactoring UI guys have a lot of great tips to create good design. And it seems that their tagline has been created for you: "Tired of relying on Bootstrap?"

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