How makers stay productive

I would say, iterate until you are satisfied with it, so practice, practice, practice.

Look for small examples on shiny websites.

(Not sure if this helps.)

I started designing back in 2012. I was familiar with Photoshop at the time, and my startup needed a new UI to house upcoming features. I didn't have money so I had to tackle design myself.

I created a UI in Photoshop based on websites I liked. It SUCKED. So I iterated and tried again. And again. And again….

EVENTUALLY I had something which looked semi-respectable. I had 0 technical design knowledge. I didn't know which colours worked well, how to create proper hierarchy. How to choose fonts, but it looked good enough. And I enjoyed the process!

Then a friend asked me to create a simple page for them, so I did, again I spent a lot of time iterating. This time I used some ideas from my first attempt, and it made the process a lot faster.

I lived on Dribbble.com - I took a lot of ideas from different sites and I started to get an idea for colours and hierarchy.

I started designing more and more pages for my startup (various marketing pages, internal pages etc.), which helped me tackle more design problems and get important experience under my belt.

Eventually, my startup failed and I wasn't sure what to do next. I had enjoyed designing so I decided to spend more time researching UX/UI and taking on very simple client work. I wasn't charging a lot but it was great experience.

Fast forward to 2021. I'm a UX/UI designer and I've been full-time since late 2013. I started using Webflow in 2014 (in addition to Sketch + Figma when they were widely available) and it transformed my life. 95% of my work is now Webflow-based and it gives me the free time to work on side projects (https://www.usebolt.io).

Crap - just realised that you said quick tips. In that case:

• Practice - go to websites like Dribbble and Lapa.ninja. Try to copy aspects from those designs, taking note of font colours, spacing, image placement etc.

• Ask others for advice - it'll help you to iterate and prevent tunnel vision.

• Don't give up - you won't be amazing straight away, but after a few attempts, you'll have a decent framework to creating simple, clean and usable designs.

Lots of copying and practise. Copy websites that you like and admire.

'Good artists copy; great artists steal.' –Picasso

Aside from the great advice given by people already, I'd say analyse examples of good design. Maybe it's Tailwind UI, maybe it's someone's landing page – screencap it and analyse what makes it feel good to you.

Is it the comfortable padding on elements? Is it the typography? Is it visual hierarchy? Is it their use of colour?

Do this often, every time you come across a design you like.

Steal.

Literally, look for what you need on dribbble, behance, pinterest. Once you find a few of the examples (let's call it a "moodboard") - think of what parts you would like to take form each example. Then implement them as good as you can as a developer - using CSS, maybe some rudimentary SVG editor for logos and icons. As long as you follow the basic principles (grids, typographic scales, color schemes) - your design will look professional and won't be bland because it was stolen from those, who have taste.