Designing a website for designers

Crafting a site that meets the high expectations of a design-savvy audience.

A tall order

Designing and building a site dedicated to designers is a tough act. It's like an overweight personal trainer giving you advice on how to stay in shape. No one is going to listen if you don't look the part. Which was why I needed to make sure that the site made a great first impression when designers landed on the page.

A maintainable design system

I needed to find the right balance between designing something of quality and building fast. If I spend too much time trying to design the best looking website, developing it could take twice as long. However, if I built something quick and dirty, designers wouldn't take notice. It was a tough balancing act, I had to be realistic and manage my expectations.

I needed to ensure that I covered the basics. A strong typographical foundation, clear messaging and consistency throughout the site. I also experimented with colour and animation to help the site stand out a little.

Knowing that I'm the one that will manage and maintain this site, it was important for me to be able to upload new content and update the site as easily as possible. So I created a simple and consisent component library that was easy to maintain.

The outcome

I feel that I was able to achieve a balance between beautiful design and easy implementation. I had to compromise in certain areas purely because my coding skills wasn't up-to-par. However, I would remind myself that a subtle piece of design wasn't going to make or break the website. At times I had to compromise.

I'm happy with the final outcome. I built a site that is easy to manage and looked the part. What I'm even more happier about is that designers from around the world have shared their stories on the site and people are viewing the content.