Design Tips for Developers
In this episode Wes and Scott dive into designing for developers - tips and tricks for improving your designs, and how to up your game in small ways that will have a big impact on your projects.
Sanity.io - Sponsor
Sanity.io is a real-time headless CMS with a fully customizable Content Studio built in React. Get up and running by typing npm i -g @sanity/cli && sanity init in your command line. Get an awesome supercharged free developer plan on sanity.io/syntax.
Mlab - Sponsor
mLab is the leading Database-as-a-Service for MongoDB, powering over half a million deployments worldwide. Wes and Scott use mLab to host their own databases as well as take care of backups, security, scaling and performance. Try out a sandbox database on your next mongoDB project → https://mlab.com.
Show Notes
6:18 - General Design Tips
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Spacing is important
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Using patterns and textures
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Use subtle gradients
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Use subtle drop shadows
- Multiple shadows on one element can have a nice effect
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Don’t use true black and white (e.g. #000 or #fff) - use softer variation of black and white
- Use CSS Variables for custom blacks and whites
- CSS default colors are almost always too harsh
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Default browser UI is almost never the best UI
- Select elements, radio buttons, checkboxes, etc. can all be styled - it’s no fun, but way better than it’s ever been
40:22 - UX Design & Animation
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Don’t use animations when not necessary
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Subtle scale/transitions on hover can be a nice effect
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CSS transitions vs Physics based
51:30 - How To Get Better
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Follow UI-themed Instagram accounts
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Find a free mockup and build it out pixel for pixel
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Take time to challenge what you think is possible or doable technically and creatively
××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ×××
- Scott: Louis Cole
- Wes: r/posthardcore Spotify Playlist
Shameless Plugs
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