When do you design?

Day 4

I've never been very good at drawing. Like "oh that drawing isn't that bad for a 2nd grader" in 6th grade bad. My handwriting isn't much better. So let's just say that I'm really happy that computers are a thing.

I don't have to worry about drawing perfect circles or straight lines, but design is still an underdeveloped skill of mine. I try to avoid using templates or pre-made components on personal projects so I can learn the most, but it often ends up in this awkward stage where the UI is good enough to devleop on but not close to a final product. It's just a bunch of loosely grouped items on a page and I have trouble seeing how it will all go together.

I like to get to this point and finish up some basic functionality before making a wireframe and deciding on the eventual look. This gives me more time to interact with the content and have a better understanding of what the best layout for the site is. After that I'll sketch out a wireframe and start creating that vision.

Anyone else follow a similar process? Or do you like to wireframe before you write any code? Or do you just wing the entire thing?

Today is Day 4 of #100daysofcode and it's starting to look like a website. Made the avatar a link back to the home page, wrapped the title with a border the same size as the image, and pulled the list of posts into its own component to facilitate the changes that will need to happen there.

I need to add some color soon as well, that will make a huge difference. If you have any pet color schemes I'd love to check them out!