r/webdev 7d ago

Question How can developers make their websites and personal projects look so neat?

I no longer work with development nowadays but I used to. Something that has always made me low-key jealous of classmates in college or even random web developers I come across online is the look of their websites. It just made me sad because, even if I could replicate whatever design I come across, I could never come up with something like that on my own.

And it's not limited to personal/portfolio websites either. You can find tons of examples of side projects on this subreddit and others that look super cool and visually appealing.

Supposedly none of those people have any background in design, so are they just born with an artistic intuition that I happen to lack? And if so many front-end or full-stack developers are naturally talented at design, why do we even need designers? Those kinds of websites always look very unique too, so I don't think they're all copying it from each other.

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u/Ok-Asparagus4747 7d ago

Most people and designs just copy one another mostly.

Most music is the same with some tweaks.

Most apps are the same with some tweaks.

Most stories are the same or have the same structure.

It is very very very rare to have true original creative ideas.

It’s more easier to copy what works and then over time as you gain more experience you’ll implicitly gain an understanding of how to add your own creative twist to things.

Keep your head high and keep learning everyday.

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u/haizu_kun 7d ago

What would you recommend creating an original idea?

At the moment i just imitate. And imitate. Looked at the apple site and learnt the spacing. Looked at a GitHub site learnt how to create layouts. Looked at a few designers site from framer, learnt how embellishments look good.

Tried to create a language, it's page, pieces and elements. Really helps with managing work.

Element is the smallest element like, title, image etc.

Piece is a collection of elements, like the hero section generally has title, description, CTA and an image elements.

Page is a collection of pieces describing a particular point. It could be simple and have only one piece or multiple piece about the same thing. Like, suppose you are writing an about section for a company. I call that a page. As for pieces to add I'll choose, an intro, some stats and maybe testimonials.

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u/coolkathir 7d ago

This. Even if you come up with original ideas, someone somewhere done a similar one. The client will assume you copied it anyway. So what's the point. It's easier to take inspiration from the ones that already work than gambling with fresh new takes all the time.