7 ms·

As a non-designer, I am finding it easier and easier to get something professional looking up. Couple this with Material-UI and a solid looking template and you

As a non-designer, I am finding it easier and easier to get something professional looking up. Couple this with Material-UI and a solid looking template and you could have a beautiful, custom landing page up a day. There are obviously UX and other issues that I struggle to excel at, but from a simple, consumer-facing perspective, I see UI getting more and more manageable.

jstummbillig 7y ago
> As a non-designer, I am finding it easier and easier to get something professional looking up The reason you find it getting easier is not to be found in any of these tools, but in your repeated effort to "put something up" and getting better at it. You are learning how to design by doing design.
- hathawsh 7y ago
  That's true, but guidance on how to get better at design is much more available than it used to be. I remember creating web sites 20 years ago and getting feedback that they looked dreadful. I had no idea why people didn't like them; I liked them! It turns out I like lots of things that most people don't and I needed guidance to find out what most people like.
  - jstummbillig 7y ago
    > That's true, but guidance on how to get better at design is much more available than it used to be. Absolutely. It's a wonderful time to learn.
  - dpau 7y ago
    20 years ago we were also much more limited in our options- 216-color web-safe palettes, minimal styling & layout, low-resolution displays, etc.
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  Maybe, maybe not. My design sense remains abysmal. Being able to use something like Bootstrap to get a sensible look and feel is a big boon.
jpxw 7y ago
Bulma is a gamechanger for me in this regard. I can get something professional looking up and running with literally no design experience. There are obviously limitations to it, but for my use cases it's great.
- applecrazy 7y ago
  Seconded. Bulma is the tool of choice for 99% of my projects. I have all the CSS classes almost memorized.
- quasse 7y ago
  Bulma looks fairly similar to Bootstrap v4 as far as visual output goes. Any major reasons to use one or the other?
  - williamdclt 7y ago
    We looked into both when writing an open-source admin interface for NestJS. We went for bootstrap because: - Nobody likes bootstrap, but everybody knows bootstrap (good for an open-source lib) - Better browser compatibility - Better accessibility - Plenty of UI widgets built on top of bootstrap (we don't use them, but people using the lib could) - About as big as each other
  - jpxw 7y ago
    No solid reasons honestly, other than personal preference. Bulma just looks better out of the box to me.
- thanatropism 7y ago
  I'm an API guy who uses Python and Hy and I'm getting started with some front-end programming on my weekends to have some hobby projects with a public face. It annoys me that every website template now expects you to install via npm. Bulma is all-out with that. If you dig down, it's apparently because the DSL Sass is used to generate CSS. But there are Sass compilers in C and Python and probably in Prolog at this juncture.
SkyPuncher 7y ago
I'm in the same boat. I struggle hard with the UX, but I'm amazed that with modern tools I can create a rudimentary, but clean design in Sketch, code it, and manage the infrastructure behind it. Even 10 years ago, these were 3 to 5 completely distinct skillsets (designer, frontend, backend, infrastructure, DBA).
- Tenemo 7y ago
  The divide between these roles you mentioned has gotten bigger over time in my opinion. It's maybe easier nowadays to put together an okay-looking proof-of-concept app, but when getting into large apps and high traffic, the stack has gotten more complicated to do right. You don't just roll out server-rendered MVC app, but need front-end with 3 layouts for different devices and state management more complex than on the back-end. Or maybe that's just my feeling.
- meerita 7y ago
  UX is pretty much a logical process.
rolltiide 7y ago
Same here, it is easy to impress your clients
KaoruAoiShiho 7y ago
Can you explain how you get a solid looking template and what you do to customize it and where Material UI comes in?

jstummbillig 7y ago

> As a non-designer, I am finding it easier and easier to get something professional looking up The reason you find it getting easier is not to be found in any of these tools, but in your repeated effort to "put something up" and getting better at it. You are learning how to design by doing design.

hathawsh 7y ago
That's true, but guidance on how to get better at design is much more available than it used to be. I remember creating web sites 20 years ago and getting feedback that they looked dreadful. I had no idea why people didn't like them; I liked them! It turns out I like lots of things that most people don't and I needed guidance to find out what most people like.
- jstummbillig 7y ago
  > That's true, but guidance on how to get better at design is much more available than it used to be. Absolutely. It's a wonderful time to learn.
- dpau 7y ago
  20 years ago we were also much more limited in our options- 216-color web-safe palettes, minimal styling & layout, low-resolution displays, etc.
ceejayoz 7y ago
Maybe, maybe not. My design sense remains abysmal. Being able to use something like Bootstrap to get a sensible look and feel is a big boon.

jpxw 7y ago

Bulma is a gamechanger for me in this regard. I can get something professional looking up and running with literally no design experience. There are obviously limitations to it, but for my use cases it's great.

applecrazy 7y ago
Seconded. Bulma is the tool of choice for 99% of my projects. I have all the CSS classes almost memorized.
quasse 7y ago
Bulma looks fairly similar to Bootstrap v4 as far as visual output goes. Any major reasons to use one or the other?
- williamdclt 7y ago
  We looked into both when writing an open-source admin interface for NestJS. We went for bootstrap because: - Nobody likes bootstrap, but everybody knows bootstrap (good for an open-source lib) - Better browser compatibility - Better accessibility - Plenty of UI widgets built on top of bootstrap (we don't use them, but people using the lib could) - About as big as each other
- jpxw 7y ago
  No solid reasons honestly, other than personal preference. Bulma just looks better out of the box to me.
thanatropism 7y ago
I'm an API guy who uses Python and Hy and I'm getting started with some front-end programming on my weekends to have some hobby projects with a public face. It annoys me that every website template now expects you to install via npm. Bulma is all-out with that. If you dig down, it's apparently because the DSL Sass is used to generate CSS. But there are Sass compilers in C and Python and probably in Prolog at this juncture.

SkyPuncher 7y ago

I'm in the same boat. I struggle hard with the UX, but I'm amazed that with modern tools I can create a rudimentary, but clean design in Sketch, code it, and manage the infrastructure behind it. Even 10 years ago, these were 3 to 5 completely distinct skillsets (designer, frontend, backend, infrastructure, DBA).

Tenemo 7y ago
The divide between these roles you mentioned has gotten bigger over time in my opinion. It's maybe easier nowadays to put together an okay-looking proof-of-concept app, but when getting into large apps and high traffic, the stack has gotten more complicated to do right. You don't just roll out server-rendered MVC app, but need front-end with 3 layouts for different devices and state management more complex than on the back-end. Or maybe that's just my feeling.
meerita 7y ago
UX is pretty much a logical process.

rolltiide 7y ago

Same here, it is easy to impress your clients

KaoruAoiShiho 7y ago

Can you explain how you get a solid looking template and what you do to customize it and where Material UI comes in?