A friend of mine had done this. A back end fellow who has picked up front end development. I can’t speak much to his toolkit beyond “React”. But he’s also found

A friend of mine had done this. A back end fellow who has picked up front end development. I can’t speak much to his toolkit beyond “React”. But he’s also found some components that he’s content with. Similarly I’ve been doing a lot of GUI work work recently. I’m also a back end person. I’m also not very detailed person. So, GUIs aren’t really my game. My work is desktop JavaFX, not the web, however. But, at some level, a UI is a UI when it comes down to bringing it to life. If there’s anything I can convey to make it easier, I think the singular concept important to a solo GUI project is momentum. GUIs are a grind. Similarly, though, “seen one, you’ve seen them all”. But as someone starting out, you haven’t seen any. That’s why once you get moving, it can go much faster, as you just keep repurposing and copying stuff you’ve already done. To get there though, you just need to start. Take a bit of time to sketch out, say, 5 screens that try and capture a good chunk of the functionality you like. A CRUD screen, a status page, simple table/report, roughed out navigation, etc. With the rough (very rough) mockup, find some stuff you like online, likely a toolkit or framework, and make some static pages. Do not spend a lot of time on this part. The goal here is to move forward and make progress. It’s easy to get trapped and distracted, but, especially on the web, making the screens look different can be really easy to change. Finally, start bringing the pages to life. Again, pick a tech and just dig in. Once you’ve brought the pages to life, you’ll be much more critical about what worked and what didn’t if you decide to look at another front end toolset. Even if you do later change your kit, you can probably keep your mock-ups. But if you follow through, in the end, you have high level, functioning examples of a good chunk of your big block UI parts, using your code, that you understand, against your backend. You know a bunch of things that work, and, as well, a bunch of things that don’t. Having the mock-ups gives you built in, methodical list of things to check off. Gotta make each field work. This helps keep you focused. This will take a spectacular amount of time. GUIs are choked with detail. But work through this and “you’ve seen it all”. Everything else is a variation of what you’ve already done. You’ve built up a lot of momentum that can give you more rapid progress. But those first screens, they’re the nut. They’ll be a lot of work.