Podcast · 1 hr

Full Stack Radio 103: Steve Schoger, Design Q&A

Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger · Full Stack Radio Free Intermediate

Steve Schoger answers real listener questions like how to make a design feel original, how to choose fonts, and how to style secondary actions. It is the audio companion to Refactoring UI, good for absorbing the reasoning on a commute. You come away with a designer's instinct for the small choices that dodge the template look.

  • Originality comes from deliberate small choices, not a big idea
  • Choosing fonts and styling secondary actions has repeatable methods
  • Generated color palettes are usually worse than considered ones
Open on fullstackradio.com ↗

It answers 2 questions

  1. I'm not a designer, how do I make my product not look terrible?
  2. How do I make a no-code app feel polished and trustworthy instead of looking like an obvious template?

Read with it

  1. Design tactics written specifically for developers and non-designers who need to ship good-looking UI without a design... refactoringui.com Book · ~250 pages Refactoring UI Adam Wathan & Steve Schoger
  2. Typography is the fastest way to stop looking like a template, because every no-code builder ships one default font that... fontpair.co Tool Fontpair fontpair.co
  3. A free, fast preview of the Refactoring UI mindset that you can apply this afternoon. It gives you seven fixes (use more white... Refactoring UI (Medium) Article · 10 min read 7 Practical Tips for Cheating at Design Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger
  4. Erik Kennedy writes for engineers and founders who were never taught design, and his rules are unusually memorable (light comes... Learn UI Design (Erik Kennedy) Essay · 25 min read 7 Rules for Creating Gorgeous UI Erik D. Kennedy
  5. An interactive page that improves an ugly wall of text step by step in front of you, so you feel exactly which changes matter... jgthms.com Tool · 4 min interactive Web Design in 4 Minutes Jeremy Thomas
  6. The classic that gives non, designers four principles they will use forever: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.... Robin Williams (Peachpit) Book · 240 pages The Non-Designer's Design Book Robin Williams
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