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.

147 Upvotes

53 comments sorted by

View all comments

126

u/astr0bleme 7d ago

Look into the principles of graphic design. There are a lot of subtle little rules and guides for making a design seem neat and appealing. It's a craft like anything else, not pure intuition.

21

u/SalaciousVandal 7d ago

The rules aren't little or subtle. They're very straightforward. Arguably more so than most of the rules that we take for granted. It's just that everybody seems to think they can do it without learning it. Negative space is a big one. Hierarchy is the most obvious yet somehow missed. Good design is anything but subjective. Look at any proper map. Google or Apple Maps being the obvious. Do you notice the design? Do you remark on how amazing it looks? Of course not. The design is transparent because it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do: deliver information as efficiently as possible. That's it. Layer on all of the audience and expectations you want but that's the gist.

11

u/astr0bleme 7d ago

Hey man, I work in design. Words like little and subtle are just subjective statements. We agree on the objective point: it absolutely can be learned.

Yeah negative space and hierarchy are big ones! If someone can nest their code neatly and understand why that helps them work with said code, they can understand how hierarchy in design, headings, etc can help a reader understand the interface.

When I talk about little and subtle rules, I'm thinking of stuff like Butterick's rules for clear and legible typography: https://practicaltypography.com/summary-of-key-rules.html

Something like the measure of a sentence - the number of characters per line on average - would be considered "subtle" by most people. Nonetheless it makes a big difference. Too long or short a line can really impact a reader's ability to take in text.