Forem: Kiran S Baliga

Design Like a Pro: 5 Tips for Stunning Visuals

Kiran S Baliga — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 06:39:57 +0000

When it comes to web and app development, great design is the key to success. In this article, we'll explore five essential design tips to help you create visually stunning and user-friendly products.

1. Prioritize User-Centered Design

User-centered design (UCD) is the foundation of a great user experience. Start by understanding your target audience and their needs. Create user personas to empathize with your users and tailor your design to their preferences. This approach ensures that your product resonates with your audience.

When you prioritize UCD, you'll conduct usability testing to gather valuable user feedback. Iterating your design based on this feedback is essential to create a design that truly meets the needs of your users. By continuously involving your audience in the design process, you're more likely to deliver a product that satisfies them.

2. Embrace Minimalism

Less is often more when it comes to design. Embrace minimalism by focusing on clean, simple layouts and limited color palettes. This approach not only makes your design aesthetically pleasing but also improves user comprehension and navigation.

In minimalist design, whitespace is your friend. It provides breathing space for the content, making it easier for users to focus on what's important. Consider using high-quality visuals and imagery sparingly, strategically placed to enhance the overall aesthetic without overwhelming the user.

3. Maintain Consistency

Consistency is key for a polished design. Use a consistent color scheme, typography, and layout throughout your application or website. This helps users easily identify and understand elements, leading to a more intuitive user experience.

Consistency extends beyond visuals. It also applies to user interactions. Ensure that buttons, links, and menus behave predictably across your platform. A well-defined design system can be a valuable asset in maintaining visual and functional consistency.

Strategically use the color you have picked for your brand to reinforce your brand visually without overdoing it.

4. Optimize for Mobile

In today's mobile-first world, it's crucial to ensure your design is responsive. Test your design on various devices and screen sizes to guarantee it looks and functions well on mobile. Responsive design enhances accessibility and user satisfaction.

Optimizing for mobile means more than just scaling down your design. Consider mobile-specific interactions, such as touch gestures and portrait/landscape orientations. Responsive web design frameworks and tools can simplify the process of adapting your design to different screen sizes.

5. Pay Attention to Typography

Typography plays a significant role in design. Choose fonts that align with your brand and content. Ensure readability by setting appropriate font sizes and line spacing. Typography can elevate the visual appeal and legibility of your design.

Consider the mood and personality your chosen fonts convey. Pair fonts wisely, using one for headers and another for body text. Also, consider accessibility standards when selecting fonts and adjusting their sizes to cater to users with varying visual abilities.

Incorporating these five design tips into your projects will not only make them visually appealing but also more functional and user-friendly. Keep these principles in mind, and your design skills will undoubtedly improve.

Remember, design is a continuous process, and staying up-to-date with the latest design trends and user preferences is crucial for success in the tech industry.

Happy designing!

Have more design tips to share or questions about design? Feel free to leave a comment below.

carpe diem✨

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3 things to note when you design an App

Kiran S Baliga — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 14:30:29 +0000

We all are self taught developer. We all use different methods.. but for sure we practice by building what we learned. Let it be a simple web app or an mobile app. If you just put a little extra effort to make your design better with these tips, your app is going to standout.

let me demonstrate...

Yes! Both are simple calculator apps. It is one of the most basic apps in your phones. But If you were to download one which one are you gonna choose the first or second? and why?

As you can guess my point, I would and many other choose the second one, why did I chose that? its aesthetically pleasing. simply put, it looks good.

Now what about this one? (I know this was discussed by so many but still..)

Individually if you look the google app's logo, its great. It matches with the google logo. But when it is together in your screen, its so unpleasant.

Meanwhile apple's simple and distinctive logos makes us easier to select an app. And if we talk about apple.. there is so much. Apple is very strong in terms of its UI / UX designs.
this article wont be enough to write about it and I am not even an I-phone or Mac user..

So how can you improve your UI?

While you always build your apps you must create a balance between UI and UX.

Tip 1

Most of you already does this.. if not you should really!!

Before you start coding always develop a prototype design. design its UI components.
There are so many tools to help you workflow like Figma, Adobe Xd
I recommend Figma cause its free and runs on your browser.
It's really easy to learn figma

Basically before you build an app, build it UI cleanly with all the components and selecting proper colours, effects like blur, transparency etc.. This is going to save you lot of time because you have this as a reference while you code.

Tip 2

Fonts

Always try to stay consistent with your fonts. Maintain the same font size throughout the app.

Choose a headline size both contrasting with the body text and fitting on average 2–3 lines.

Tip 3

Colours

The colors must ensure a clear visual Hierarchy of UI elements. The user should be able to tell which elements of your UI are interactive and how they relate to the other elements on the screen.
Text and icons should be legible relative to the background they are placed on. Ensure that white text is not placed on a light background and vice versa, for example
Strategically use the color you have picked for your brand to reinforce your brand visually without overdoing it.

That's it with these simple tips you can make your app look good.

What about you? What all do you do when you design an app?
let me know... I would love to hear it...

carpe diem✨

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Learn DSA with LeetCode

Kiran S Baliga — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 15:52:08 +0000

Data Structures and Algorithms is one of the most important concept that you should be thorough with regardless of which language you code.

Every interviewer is going to ask you questions on the same.
From Competitive Coding to Software development.. You are going to stumble upon Data Structures.

And I noticed a lot of my classmates including myself was weak in DSA. Hence this blog is to learn DSA by spending not more than 20 mins per day

I tried various websites to practice coding problems and I found leetcode very convenient and best for this purpose.

Before you dive into it make sure you are clear with the following basic concepts-

Basic Arithmetic and logical Operations
Loops
Logical conditions
Functions
Classes

You can find a large collection of tutorials and YouTube videos about these topics in the web.

LeetCode

leetcode offers daily challenges which we will be solving and will also discuss the concepts of the same.

The aim is to complete daily challenges regularly and the best part is you only need to spend about 20 mins a day🥳🥳.

So lets start!

LEARN DSA

click on the above link to follow to my GitHub repository for an interactive python notebook and solved LeetCode challenges and concepts.

So what you waiting for?
Come on seize this opportunity!!

carpe diem✨

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First Open Source Contribution Doesn't Have To Be Hard.

Kiran S Baliga — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 08:42:46 +0000

It's October and we all know what it's all about - Hacktoberfest. People are busy celebrating open-source and making contributions.

Contributions? 🤔 Wondering how to get started with your first open-source contribution? You're in the right place! Keep scrolling...
Let's get to it step by step ✨

So what exactly is Hacktoberfest?

Hacktoberfest is a month-long celebration of open source software run by DigitalOcean in partnership with GitHub and Twilio. It encourages participation in the open source community, which grows bigger every year.

Complete the challenge by contributing and getting 4 pull requests merged and earn a limited edition T-shirt. It is open to everyone in our global community! Four quality pull requests must be submitted to public GitHub repositories.

Don't know how to use git/github?

Sounds cool?

Now it's time for your first step! 🤩

Mashithandu

tinkerhubmace / mashithandu

A repo for beginners to do their first contribution in GitHub

mashithandu

About this repo

This is a repo for beginners to experience the path of open source contribution

Students Instructions

Fork this repo

Create a fork of this repo to your account.

💡 search StackOverflow on how to Fork a repo in GitHub

Contribute

Add your contribution to the repo by editing the contents of the folder with your campus name.

💡 Contact your campus lead for exact instructions

Create a pull request

After committing and pushing your changes go to your fork and create…

View on GitHub

Celebrating this വിദ്യാരംഭം,
Make your First contribution to the Mashithandu project.

Here is how to contribute to Mashithandu...

Step 1: Head over to this link and simply follow the instructions provided there.
Step 2: There is no step 2... It's easy as that! 😉

Loved contributing?🙅 How about one more then? 😁

WikiSyllabus

gtech-mulearn / WikiSyllabus

A collaborative project to build an evolving website/wiki to host, enhance, link, extend & update the university syllabus to help students find a way to connect their education to what’s new in the industry.

WikiSyllabus : Take your syllabus online

A collaborative project to build an evolving website/wiki to host, enhance, link, extend & update the university syllabus to help students find a way to connect their education to what’s new in the industry.

How to Contribute ?

Contributors ✨

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

Chaitanya Liz
💻

Uma V Menon
💻

Angel Rose
💻

Thejas Kiran P S
💻

Irene Rose Johnson
📖

Aravind S
📖

milandeepak
💬 📖

H Athulkrishnan
📖

This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!

View on GitHub

WikiSyllabus is a collaborative project to build an evolving website/wiki to host, enhance, link, extend & update the university syllabus to help students find a way to connect their education to what’s new in the industry.
Head over to this link for further instructions on how to contribute!

💚 Love OpenSource?

Here are some more repos to contribute
https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/resources/beginners

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HacktoberFest

Kiran S Baliga — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 07:22:14 +0000

I came to know about this, just after it ended in nov 2019, I really wanted to join this year and I did, It was amazing opportunity ad i learnt a lot

Forem: Kiran S Baliga

Design Like a Pro: 5 Tips for Stunning Visuals

1. Prioritize User-Centered Design

2. Embrace Minimalism

3. Maintain Consistency

4. Optimize for Mobile

5. Pay Attention to Typography

carpe diem✨

3 things to note when you design an App

let me demonstrate...

So how can you improve your UI?

Tip 1

Tip 2

Fonts

Tip 3

Colours

carpe diem✨

Learn DSA with LeetCode

LEARN DSA

click on the above link to follow to my GitHub repository for an interactive python notebook and solved LeetCode challenges and concepts.

carpe diem✨

First Open Source Contribution Doesn't Have To Be Hard.

So what exactly is Hacktoberfest?

Sounds cool?

Mashithandu

tinkerhubmace / mashithandu

A repo for beginners to do their first contribution in GitHub

mashithandu

Table of contents

About this repo

Students Instructions

Fork this repo

Contribute

Create a pull request

Loved contributing?🙅 How about one more then? 😁

WikiSyllabus

gtech-mulearn / WikiSyllabus

A collaborative project to build an evolving website/wiki to host, enhance, link, extend & update the university syllabus to help students find a way to connect their education to what’s new in the industry.

WikiSyllabus : Take your syllabus online

Contributors ✨

HacktoberFest