How do you get a graphic design if you are a programmer?
Hi guys,
I have this app running, but it looks ugly as it has only bootstrap theme with few colors changes. Many people tell me it's a biggest weakness. I am a programmer with no graphic skills.
How do you design your website? How do you get a graphic design? Do you buy it? Do you copy other websites?
Let me know, please.
Cheers, Michal
One thing I've learned that may help you as well: being someone who isn't great at graphic design, it was much easier to make a site with a white/off-white theme look professional than to do the same for a site with a lot of colors (especially background colors).
I spent a lot of time trying to make a site with a blue background look professional, and after 3-4 iterations finally went back and redid the whole thing in white this past week. It's like night and day.
This comment was deleted 9 years ago
I suggest to try to learn the basics of design yourself. I think you'd be surprised how far you can get with a few basics: proper alignment, sufficient padding, a good color scheme, etc.
I'm a developer and I design my projects myself. I try to focus on keeping everything simple, clean and usable. The result will not win any design awards but it works well for me.
Try to look at guides like this to get some basic ideas:
https://www.taniarascia.com/design-for-developers/
(I just found it on google it and it seems good, I'm sure there are many like this)
Also, get inspiration from other sites. Don't copy anything of course, but all designers get inspiration and ideas from others. Just yesterday there was a post here about this:
https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/what-is-the-website-with-the-best-design-out-there-right-now-ce2fd405db
I usually go with paid templates. Just go and buy something really nice and well thought. Don't worry, the first couple of themes you buy probably will be not good. It takes time to understand the details you are looking for.
When you have the cases you don't have widget in your theme -- that is only the place when you need a designer. And, actually, look for good examples of UI and just implement them. I look usually at google services, evernote, toggl. I am sure everyone has their own tastes. But it is much better to copy something that is working that paying designer to come up with some "new brilliant idea".
So I'm a developer and I ran into some of the same problems that you've encountered. In the past I've turned to services such as Fiverr and Upwork, but honestly, the work wasn't up to my standards. Bootstrap and Foundation also aren't the only CSS frameworks that are out there. I've used one called Milligram (milligram.io) before to start off with and then change it as needed. I've also gone as far as to take some design courses on Udemy to hone my skills. After some time I've come up with a custom generic framework that I roll from project to project as it fits my needs. Take a lot of sites that you like, and some of the elements that you like about those sites, and try to replicate them for yourself.
Could you share the design courses you'd recommend?
I learned a lot from Travis Neilson and Mackenzie Child on youtube. I also took the course when it first came out from Mackenzie Child here: https://mackenziechild.withcoach.com/design-for-developers... It's too expensive now though (it was $150). There are too many to count on Udemy and some are hit and miss.
Out of all the things that I did, going out and finding sites I like and then trying to mimic them are what helped me out the most. I learned a pretty clever acronym too from somewhere that's helped me think about how to fix things with a bad design... it's C.R.A.P. (as in don't make your design look like crap). It stands for Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity. If you learn about that as well as typography and color theory, you will have tons to read and it will help you out a lot.
The book, Hello Web Design, is great and approachable. I read it and found it to be very helpful. The author, Tracy Osborn, was featured on the podcast and on the blog not that long ago. You might check out one of her "Web Design for Non Designer" talks on YouTube.
For general type/font advice, Top Ten Typography Tips is great too.
This seems super interesting. I'll give it a try! Thank you!
Hey Michal, design is always my biggest challenge as well :(
Sometimes I buy a template from ThemeForest, especially if it's a B2B tool heavy on admin/dashboard.
Otherwise I've learned to customize and mould Bootstrap pretty effectively. There are also newer and smaller frameworks out there as well such as https://bulma.io/
I think design is critical these days so it's a good idea to invest in improving your design skills.
btw... I ALWAYS borrow from other sites. I don't copy entire sites but copy parts of sites. Maybe there's a color combination I like, or I like how they structured a section, etc. You shouldn't be inventing new design concepts.
For each project I start a bookmark folder where I save a bunch of sites that have interesting designs that I would like to use as inspiration. I'm constantly bookmarking interesting web design and I would recommend that you do the same because it trains you to spot good design.
Good luck!
Great tips! Thank you. Especially bookmarking sites that you like.
Regarding those CSS frameworks, I am afraid there's too many of them and it's hard to choose one. After some time of using it there are always some downfalls. But seems to me that most of them are much nicer than bootstrap.
https://refactoringui.com/ looks like it will be great once it comes out, but Adam and Steve have been sharing great tips on their Twitter feeds for improving website design with small changes.
This turns out to be awesome tip. There's a first case study which I read twice. It's awesome to see how designer thinks.
I have the same problem as I a more a backend developer than a frontend one, and I have absolutely no artistic feeling to create a design which is good enough.
So for all my projects, I always buy a template from themeforest.com (you can get high quality templates for less than 50$). Then I am able to customize the template to fit my needs.
Get an outsourced designer to make the designs , it can be as low as 5USD / hour
Any tips where to hire?
Hey Michal. Shoot me an email. I'll help you.
Copy the designs of other sites. Visit the biggest names you can think of and make exact notes of how they designed their sites. Copy and recombine the elements you need for your site.
Try beaver! :-) https://www.beaver.digital
For testing projects I usually buy a template. For example these ones https://wrapbootstrap.com/ Since they are built with bootstrap they are easier to adapt to your needs.
I've learned some of the basics of what makes something look nice and how to use Sketch to mock something up. Then I look at other sites for "inspiration." Combining my favorites elements and styles from other sites, usually results in something that looks pretty good. And it's FREE
Sounds like you just need a business presence site. Plenty of free options abound, WordPress is great. Try ['business presence' 'content management system' free] for what should be a decent set of search results at most sites.
you should ask a designer !
what's your app ?
I am not sure I want to pay a designer for now when I am just checking whether the app has a chance. That's why I'd like to do some graphic on my own and later let a designer redesign it.
The app is not translated to english for now :( I'll translate soon and introduce it here.
then you should copy some design you like one behance.com, and use some tools like flaticon.com for your icons, coolors.co to choose your colors, shutterstock.com or gettyimages.com for your visuals and google font for your fonts...
But you can also ask for a designer to work with you for free or against equity. (i'm a designer ;-) )
You should form a basic understanding of design, try copying some great design that you like (and focus on "stealing" the core of it).
That being said, here are some actionable (and some more BSish) tips: