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

Spacing is important
Using patterns and textures
Use subtle gradients
- ColorSpace
Use subtle drop shadows
- Multiple shadows on one element can have a nice effect
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
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

Don't use animations when not necessary
Subtle scale/transitions on hover can be a nice effect
Particles.js
Patagonia's Bears Ears
CSS transitions vs Physics based

51:30 - How To Get Better

Follow UI-themed Instagram accounts
siteInspire
Dribbble
UISources
Follow Steve Schoger
Find a free mockup and build it out pixel for pixel
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

Tweet us your tasty treats!

Scott's Instagram
LevelUpTutorials Instagram
Wes' Instagram
Wes' Twitter
Wes' Facebook
Scott's Twitter
Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets