I suck at design. What now?

https://www.refactoringui.com/ gives you the basics of designs, can most likely learn it online but that will save time.

Use UI kits for React that would be Mantine and https://github.com/shadcn/ui along with Taiwlind for their great defaults.

For landing pages you can use no-code builders and templates. I built https://versoly.com/ for that

Hey Lee,
Design can be practised, but also it's developed, it's an acquired taste. Meaning, you not only learn how to create design in tools like Figma, but you also develop your design taste.

Everyone has a unique design taste that reflects a certain part of their personality in work, and every designer has a sub-part of design at which they are really great. Some are exceptional in picking and playing around with colours, some understand lighting and shadows, and some like to play around with unique layouts.
I would say, spend a lot of time at sites like Dribble and acquire the taste. You'll learn how some designers are solving design problems. (could be related to your projects as well)

You can outsource the legwork, but if you can not feel the product that you building, it would be tough the keep it going. Make the wireframes, make the first leg of designs and then, get it improved by a professional. The original thought process of design should be very unique to you.

5 years ago, When I was in college and building my first web app with Python, I stumbled upon the same question.

I solved this problem very easily. I learned the design, however, due to giving 4 years to practice design.

I forgot how to code, and now, I am a full-time designer who knows some codes also.

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I don't know which option you should choose because both options have benefits and disadvantages.

But remember that getting better in design is not easy.

Even though you can create beautiful interfaces, you also have to do user flow, wireframe, research and, most importantly, all these things without hurting the usability.

As a developer, I thought the design was all about beautiful interfaces. If you want to create an interface, you can learn UI design that's fine.

But if your requirement is more than just a UI interface, think deeply.

Hopefully! you got my point.

I am also not great at design. I am sure you know that you can use a lot of ready-made components/templates from tailwind (for example). I have been using them a lot.

I also rebuild components from other landing pages that I like. TBH I am more an assembler than a creator, but that's more than enough to 5 digits MRR. Then you can always hire a dedicated designer.

Consider collaborating with a skilled designer or seeking design assistance to enhance the visual appeal of your product. Partnering with experts in UI/UX design. Additionally, exploring design resources and templates available online can provide a solid foundation for your design. Remember, seeking help in areas where you feel less confident is a sign of strength and can lead to a more polished product.

All the best :)

Having been there on both sides, I suggest you should Outsource if you do not want to compromise on the design quality (which you shouldn't).

If you are starting your own bussiness don't waste time trying to learn all the skills you will need to run every part of the company. Double down on your strenghts and buy the time of a talented designer. You might not need them 24/7 at first, maybe just for getting some mockups or prototypes, but definetly don't start another carreer from zero, unless you really want to because you enjoy the art of it, if thats case, just know you will be delaying your bussiness :o anyways what do i know :p

Design takes time to learn, but once you understand that it’s just shapes and spacing, you’ll get better at it. On your free time, try replicating your favorite websites using Figma. You can only improve by doing through repetition. You’ll pick up shortcuts and get a better understanding of why certain decisions were made.

I have started designing just a month back.

A backend developer, all I know is to talk to computers.

But as a designer, I have to talk to a person. Understand what they are thinking and what they plan to do.

Thats what you have to do. Think from a person's perspective. While coding, we thinking from a computer's perspective.

The main part of any website design is its content. Design will make a visitor smile. And not feel repulsed. That's half part. Other is writing.

So I think you can get better. Content, font, color with just three elements you can do wonders.

Cheers.

Steal like an Artist! Of course understanding design basis is really important if you want to design/build your own projects but as I start you could simply see what the big guys are doing (for inspiration - www.landingfolio.com).
If you know how to use Tailwind CSS there are some pretty nice themes and components
(flowbite.com, preline.co)

• Take pen and paper and write down the concept of your idea
• Find the components / templates you need as ready tailwind snippets
• Put the peaces together and see some nice results

The best way to learn doing something is by practicing!

It all comes down to are you ready and want to dedicate time and resources to learn UX/ UI master it and be good in both, or you would rather stick with what you know and outsource the design to someone who's solid so the final product is perfect from start to end.

The good news is that you know you suck! 😄 It means you can tell if an UI design looks good or not. The problem is that you don't know how to turn a bad design into something that looks good. 🤔

I was in the same position a few years ago. I know how to code a website or build a mobile app, but I sucked at design.

Someone in the comments recommended a book called Refactoring UI. It's a good starting point. I learned some simple rules, which allowed me to fix my 'broken' designs and make them more pretty. After finishing the book, I knew how to design components but struggled with views and whole pages.

Courses and tutorials are great, but the best way to learn UI is through hands-on experience. 🧑‍💻 The first thing you need to do is find some good designs on Dribbble. Find as much as you can and bookmark them. Then you can open Figma, choose one of the saved designs, and try to recreate it. After you finish, pick a new design and do the same thing. Try to copy 2–3 designs daily, and you'll see progress. By doing this, you'll be subconsciously learning some design patterns, and eventually, you'll automatically know how to make a good layout, match fonts, choose spaces, etc. Just practice it every day. 😁 You can also try to 'fix' those designs later by moving some elements, changing colours, picking new fonts, etc., and then validate the design and see if it's still looking good.

Good luck & have fun! ✌️

Sorry if I'm late to this but here's some advice from a full-time UI designer. I know how to develop as well, but I no longer offer it as a service or build my own apps. After building multiple apps, I soon realized my favorite part of the whole process was designing the prototype. So I decided to laser focus on UI design and leave the development to skilled developers like yourself. Of course, if you're bootstrapping, you may have to wear both hats, but there is a plethora of professionally designed templates to get you started until you can afford to outsource. With all that said, I would say to not spend too much time perfecting your design skills if it's not something you enjoy or are good at. Focus on your strengths.💪

Thanks everyone for the replies! Really appreciate it.

Summarizing the main points from all the comments, here's what I'm getting:

0. Understand, first of all, if deeply understanding design & becoming an expert is important to me, my happiness, and my long-term goals

1. If yes to above, there are a lot of resources out there to learn. But it will TAKE TIME. And it will be a long game, but definitely possible.

2. If no to question #0 (or even as a hybrid approach), starting with outsourcing can be a good option.

3. Also, "outsourcing" is kind of a spectrum as well. I can start by just copy+pasting templates and pre-made UI components, and eventually hire contracted or full-time designers as the business grows.

4. Fully outsourcing to contractors, however, can be time-consuming as well. I'll still need to develop some skill of rapid prototyping/iteration I can do on my own (with templates, basic design knowledge, etc). That way, I can build a minimal version, then ask for design help.

Given that I'm focusing on velocity, and "in my ideal world" I'm not a designer (but rather someone that understands it decently well and can delegate well), I think I'm going to lean more towards learning the basics and outsourcing after that.

If you're not satisfied with your design skills and don't have the time or resources to improve them, outsourcing design is a great option.

If you're looking for a designer who can create designs that are specific to your industry, be sure to look for designers who have experience in that area. This will help to ensure that you get designs that are relevant to your target audience. Once you've found a few designers that you're interested in, be sure to get quotes from each of them. This will help you to compare prices and find the best deal.

However, please do note design is a skill that takes time and practice to develop. Just because you're not seeing results immediately doesn't mean you're not making progress. One of the best ways to learn design is to study the work of other designers. Pay attention to the elements of design they use and how they use them to create a cohesive and effective design.

There are many online and offline design communities where you can connect with other designers and learn from each other. These communities can be a great resource for getting feedback on your work, finding inspiration, and staying up-to-date on the latest design trends.

consume as much designed stuff as you can

go find where designers hangout

it's not rocket science... and i can prove it!

i made this turd in january: https://tigerhousebooks.com

i made this diamond in may: https://selfarama.com

that's ~6 months of paying attention to design

it probably happened in about 4 short bursts over that period

there is hope for us all

good luck!

I honestly think that an eye for design is trained - I used to suck and now I'm a bit better. The way I learnt was to try and copy designs that I like (dribbble is a great tool to look for inspirations or UI designs to copy). That way, you start to learn how to structure your designs in a nice way.

As a nice rule of thumb that helped me starting out: less is more. Really good designers can have the benefit of creating complex designs, but, if you are like me and don't have formal training in design, it's always better to choose the simpler alternatives.

I think it depends on what you want; how you want to spend your time. Which is more than just a matter of efficiency. (Assuming your business is minimally sustainable.)

Personally, I like doing everything myself. Even the bits I'm weak at. Because I want to develop those skills. I enjoy the challenge! And I like to think that the result is a more coherent whole, as well; with my own taste/sensibilities at play at every level.

That said, I'm still between 0 and 1 with my stuff. So we'll see... I might look back on this time wishing I had been more efficient, ha.

I guess with ready to use templates anything is possible

With the help of AI tools now it is much more easier to design something, however, lots of details that can only be done by humans might be missing, thus, perhaps option number 2 is one of the good ones.

I'd say it depends on the stage you're currently in. Acquiring a basic understanding of design principles can be beneficial as it allows for swift iteration during the initial days or weeks of product development. While outsourcing can be an option, it's also time-consuming, so I wouldn't suggest pursuing it until after the MVP is released. If you lack proficiency in design and the UI plays a crucial role in your product, it may be worth seeking a design co-founder.

Short and effective answer: Outsource to a reliable and cost effective design service. The benefits far outweighs the gains in the short term.

Long answer (and mostly for a long term outcome): Dig deeper into yourself and sincerely answer these questions

1. Will the long term goal of honing my design skills make any significant impact on my happiness and future goals

2. Why am I not satisfied with pretty decent modern designs I can get from established design system libraries like Material design, Ant design, IBM Carbon Design System, you can find more by searching for design systems or ui libraries on google

3. If I decide to dedicate some time to perfecting my design skills, will I be abandoning my programmings skills or dedicating fairly equal attention to both.

Here are just a few questions that comes to mind. Answering them as sincerely as possible will help you in designing the final response to what you desire. There's no right or wrong answer. I can say that from over 15years experience as a top designer and senior programmer.

Each of the skills takes a lot of time to learn and practice. Then you need a fair amount of real life experience to make them stick. It's almost a waste of time, if you're beginner in both, to learn both at the same time. You'll most likely not learn any of them sufficiently well to confidently show them off.

For me I'd to master both because I'd long term projects that require very high levels of both worlds and I'd little success in retaining top design or programming talented friends to stay on the project for a while so I'd to do the work myself and eventually got the backing of Angel Investors. Then things began to ease up.

Outsource, try a new designer monthly and run A/B splits, then pay the designer a bonus of 25% on increased conversion rate sales for 30 days

+1 to https://www.refactoringui.com/ - it's a great resource for devs looking to learn design.

IMO design is such a learned by practice skill as an indie hacker - while you can get fundamentals down with courses (e.g https://learnui.design by Erik Kennedy is great), it's the reps that ultimately build your design muscles.

It's great that you've recognized your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to design. Both options you mentioned, getting better at design or outsourcing it, have their merits. Here are some considerations to help you make a decision:

Importance of design: Consider the significance of design in your work. If you frequently need to create visually appealing websites or user interfaces, having a good design sense can greatly enhance the user experience and overall success of your projects. In such cases, investing time in improving your design skills might be beneficial.

Learning potential: Reflect on your motivation and willingness to learn. If you genuinely enjoy design and have the determination to improve, investing time and effort into learning design principles, practicing with design tools like Figma, and seeking feedback can help you progress. It may take time, but over the long run, you can develop a good eye for design.

Opportunity cost: Assess the opportunity cost of investing your time in design. Consider whether the time spent learning design could be better utilized in other areas where you excel, such as programming or growing your business. If design is not a core requirement for your work or doesn't align with your long-term goals, outsourcing design might be a more efficient option.

Collaboration and budget: If you decide to outsource design, ensure you have the resources to hire a skilled designer or a design agency. Collaborating with professionals who specialize in design can save you time and result in higher-quality outcomes. However, it's important to have a clear understanding of your design needs, provide thorough project briefs, and communicate your expectations effectively.

Hybrid approach: Consider a hybrid approach where you continue to develop your design skills to a certain extent while also collaborating with designers. This way, you can maintain a basic level of design competency and effectively communicate your ideas to designers, even if you're not personally executing all design tasks.

Ultimately, the decision depends on your specific circumstances, priorities, and long-term goals. It's worth evaluating your personal interest in design, the impact it has on your work, and the availability of resources to make an informed choice.

outsource . I am the creator of ugly designs too. It takes long time for me to design and output is always ugly so i have accepted this limitation and i take help from my designer friends in exchange for development help.