The Best Design Resources for Indie Hackers, according to Indie Hackers
In a previous post, I asked IndieHackers what I should do as an Engineer who sucks at design.
I'll go over strategy first, and then resources.
Here's what I learned from the 40 different responses I got:
Learning vs. Outsourcing
Everything comes with an opportunity cost.
How essential is "becoming a design expert" for you and your business? Becoming great at design will take months/years of practice.
IndieHackers will have to wear many hats though, so learning the basics (to the point where you can easily hand it off to a professional designer) might be a great compromise without getting too deep into the weeds.
You need to draw your own line.
Best methods to Learn
Lots of courses and books were mentioned, which I'll list down below.
But the most common answer I got was to learn by copying. Pick a site you like, then copy it 1:1 on Figma. Similar to how a novice musician would begin playing other peoples' songs to get the hang of it.
Humans learn incredibly quickly through repetition, so this makes sense!
Resources
Books
Refactoring UI - for the basics of design
Javascript UI Libraries
shadcn/ui - Free, open source UI Kit for React
Mantine - Free, open source component library for React
Preline UI - Free, open source Tailwind-based component library for React, Vue, and any HTML
Flowbite - Tailwind-based component library for a bunch of frameworks (React, Vue, Svelte, Solid, etc). Both free and paid components.
Tools
Tailwind - Tailwind is Tailwind (and no, not Google's new AI project that happens to share the same name).
Figma - Figma is Figma
Design Template Sites
UI8 - Design template marketplace for all kinds of apps
Flowbase - Components & Templates for Webflow sites
Design Inspiration Boards
Dribbble - Portfolio showcase for designers
Landingfolio - Huge collection of design inspiration. I really love this.
No-code tools
Webflow - Webflow is webflow. I love it, it's a drag-and-drop website builder that relies heavily on CSS. If you're familiar with CSS, you'll feel at home here.
Versoly - No code website builder. Helps you create a fast, visually-appealing landing page with ease. Advanced coding functionality is also included, it looks like.
Are we missing anything?
Feel free to include more in the comments for everyone to learn!
One thing that really helped me when I was struggling with design wasn’t just UI kits or inspiration boards, but actually experimenting with simple creative tools to understand how visuals come together. Even basic tools can teach layering, color balance, and composition in a very practical way. I found that messing around with something like Paint 3D gave me a better feel for structuring elements before jumping into Figma. There’s a beginner-friendly guide here that breaks it down nicely: thepaint3ds. It’s not a replacement for design tools, but it definitely helps build that foundational intuition.