Looking for a designer but on a budget shoestring... what to do?
I have been building web apps for over 15 years and one thing i have learned is that i am not a web designer. As much as i try, i just suck at it. It's so frustrating but it makes me appreciate the art and talent of web designers... this stuff is not easy.
My side project needs
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Hey Damien,
I know how you feel. I've come from a hardcore dev/engineering background as well, and they typically don't let us within a hundred yards of a UI ;) But, we're hackers and hustlers, and sometimes we just have to jump in and make the best of it.
However, I had a bit of fun tinkering with your website's design and I made a teardown video showing you what I did along the way. Just a bit of tinkering for 20 minutes, small UI tweaks to give things a bit of flavor rather than just "stock bootstrapness" - For more inspiration, check out what guys like Steve Schoger and @adamwathan are doing.
Here's the video of the teardown I did for you: https://youtu.be/J_jGnGH3YsU
Don't want to wait? Here are the before/after images: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HAw1U9Foskqgigt-n5HImFjU5WnivqmF (I really wish IH would let me attach a photo)
Tools used:
Google Fonts: https://fonts.google.com
uiGradients: https://uigradients.com/
Thank you! You get me!
This is awesome, i really appreciate you taking the time to do this and show me (and others) how you do this.
All these subtle changes make a huge difference, and i can definitely implement them, i am just not creative enough to see how to enhance things up... what you just did for me makes me wonder if there is a platform that showcases creative and simple ways to enhance UIs that are built on boilerplate frameworks like Bootstrap? Such a platform like that would so useful for many - just like me - out there, and it would not take a lot of work for frontend developers to submit ideas (HTML and CSS with a preview). Just an idea!
Use the shoestring budget to buy HTML template on Themeforest
Haha, that's what I did for the Front Desk web site 🙌 http://thetheme.io/thesaas/
I was going to say the same, if the budget is really tight, Themeforest is your friend.
Perhaps offer a skillswap? Some time doing Dev work for help with your UI
Hi Damien. Designer here. Shoot me an Email and I will tell where I can help.
You can check us out on Draftss.com for an affordable web design & graphic design based requirements.
Will look into it. Thank you!
Find a designer friend and send them coffee beer tickets. Haha! Http://dribbble.com/borderbabe2412 always happy to connect and talk design strategy for free.
Are you looking to fix the ui and design on your site, StackrApp site? Let me know I might be able to help with the UI.