How do I become a good web developer when I struggle with design?

Hi Daryl,

I'm not very good at design either but I've become a lot better with practise.

I recommend http://skillshare.com/. It's a great site to learn design.

I'm actually doing this course currently which I think will help you a lot:

https://www.skillshare.com/classes/design/Fundamentals-of-Design-How-to-Think-Like-a-Designer/1986357063/classroom/discussions?enrolledRedirect=1

I recommend taking the Illustrator wireframe course on here, that was pretty good.

It takes time to learn design but stick at it because it's important.

Good luck!

Hi Daryl,

Joe definitely hit it on the money mentioning practice makes one better. I know I myself have come a LONG way since I could finally look at something I designed and went "damn, that looks dope." A looooooong time lol. Here are few a things, that had I known earlier, I coulda saved myself an ENORMOUS amount of (tweak) time....

First start of with your layout. From your wireframe then to on to your prototype. Like Joe mentioned, there are great resources online to help you out in this area of your design if you're so inclined. The more energy you put into this area, and get everything exact and precise, the more time you'll save down the road.

Secondly, color should be the last thing you worry about. Start off with black and white first. I personally use hsl/hsb (hue, saturation, lightness/brightness), and then adjust the lightness to "color" my wireframes in increments of 10% or 20%. (totally css friendly btw). This article talks about coloring a bit more, and also touches on other things as well, such as spacing. An excellent read that I would suggest if you have the time. https://medium.com/@erikdkennedy/7-rules-for-creating-gorgeous-ui-part-1-559d4e805cda#.vhqmp9r26. Here is a list of sites that might be helpful to you when choosing colors...

//A great flat color picker of all saturations and lightness http://www.flatuicolorpicker.com/

//A collaborative palette of color themes http://flatcolors.net/palettes

//If you need a quick all color scheme https://flatuicolors.com

//Gives shades of any particular color. It also gives the //hex, hsl, and rgb equivalents http://www.color-hex.com/color/00b5b5

//It gives a set scheme, //then shows the site that used the scheme at the bottom of the site. http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/inspiration/24-flat-designs-with-compelling-color-palettes

//This site is a amazing. It's the equivalent, and even better imho, //of Adobe's color palette. Mono, complimentary, triad, and tetrad http://paletton.com

Lastly, since you mentioned multiple projects, focusing on one project from start to finish would help you a lot more than trying to tackle a few at a time. Just push them out one at time, start it, finish it, and then move on the next. You can always come back down the road, weeks or months later and revamp a few things, and you'll be surprised at much you've grown in that amount of time since you rolled out the site. The important thing to remember is the reason why you think your work doesn't look as good as you think it should, is because you HAVE that design/artistic eye. You have that little internal eye telling you it doesn't look right, which is ACTUALLY just the confirmation you need to push you forward, and to become a better designer. Without it, how would you get any better? So it's a good thing, is what I'm saying, and practice makes perfect :)

Thanks to you both for replying!

https://medium.com/@erikdkennedy/7-rules-for-creating-gorgeous-ui-part-1-559d4e805cda#.vhqmp9r26. - such a great article!! Really made me think about how I am approaching things and how I can just simplify. Coming from an accountancy background I can really relate to the approach of looking at it more systematically ;)