Every side project I build hits the same wall. The code works, the idea is fine, and then the interface makes it look unfinished. No designer, no budget for one.

So I'm curious how other solo builders actually handle this:

• What's your design process when there's no designer? Component libraries, copying layouts you like, AI tools, something else?

• How do you find out the UX is bad in the first place? I can tell when something feels off, but I can't articulate why so I end up changing colors instead of fixing the real problem.

Curious what your setup looks like.

Hey folks!

We re gearing up for our next launch and would love your input.

Happy Tuesday!
I stumbled upon this AMA session with @syswarren and enjoyed learning how the design team works at Product Hunt:
> "We have a shared UI library where you can find our most common components, as well as the pieces that make the components"
How about you? do you use a design system?
Edit: According to Nielsen Norman Group, a design system is:
> A set of standards to manage design at scale by reducing redundancy while creating a shared language and visual consistency across different pages and channels.
Basically, it s a set of design tokens and UI components used by product design teams to work with consistency at scale.
I'm eager to read your comments on this!

You can now create design systems in @v0 by Vercel.

• Create unique color schemes for your v0 generations

• Adjust the colors for a design system right from Design Mode

• Preview in light & dark mode

Their team also is working on support for advanced design systems features like fonts, custom components, AI-generated design systems, and more.

• Watch the product announcement on X

• Get started with v0.app

In a recent issue of The Breakpoint, we talked quality software.

Does design matter to developers? In my opinion, yes. Take Stripe, Linear, and Resend for example. Both dev-first products made craftsmanship a first principle.

Meow Monday
Product Hunt is full of gems for developers.
Some are hidden tho. They weren't featured or didn't rank in the Top 5.
Let's shine a spotlight on them.
Here are some hidden, awesome dev-first products that I found here:

• AuthKit by WorkOS: pre-built, customizable sign-in UI

• GitHub Copilot X: AI-powered developer experience

• Gitpod CLI: take Gitpod to your local command line

• Linear Insights by Linear: instant analytics for any stream of work

• Liveblocks Yjs by Liveblocks: build Notion-like text editors in minutes

• Specify 2.0 by Specify: design token engine

• Tinybird Versions by Tinybird: iterate your real-time data pipelines with Git

• v0. dev by Vercel: generate UI with simple text prompts

Over to you! What are some awesome dev tools that you found on Product Hunt?
If you enjoy this discussion, please do repost it!

I believe every project should have a website to showcase its offering, not to mention for SEO purposes. Whether SEO will still be relevant due to AI is another discussion.

Do you have any favourite websites that are both functional and beautifully designed?

Happy Tuesday
What are the most well-designed open-source products from your point of view?
My favorites:

• @Supabase

• @Appwrite

• @Cal.com

• @Dub

• @Documenso

• @Hanko via @lxunos

Would love to have your suggestions
Thanks!

I was recently talking with a group of founders, and we went around sharing tools we're using now. Posting my notes for our community here - would love to know what else people are using!

Voice AI toolkit:

- Vapi

I'm Dulaj , a UI/UX designer and Framer developer with over 6 years of experience crafting clean, user-focused digital experiences. I recently founded encolab.agency to help startups and solo founders turn early ideas into powerful, production-ready websites using design and no-code.

I focus on:

Modern, user-first interface design

Seamless, responsive Framer development