How did you design and build your homepage? I find that building the landing page and making it look like a professional, beautiful design is one of my biggest hurdles. I'm an experienced web developer but without a design to work off of - and especially accounting for mobile and dynamic sizing - I really struggle with this part of the work so I'm wondering what other people's workflows are for it.
Yea I feel ya, I’m definitely not a good designer based on how long this stuff takes me. I think we are all not that bad but once you spend 6 hours on a component you really feel your dev skills could be much better used. Anyway here are some of the things I used on the landing page:
Yes, I know, that's very easy to say, but in my experience:
1.) Imitating a good design can take a lot of developer hours. Many landing pages have fancy css effects and support many screen sizes and it can take quite some time to build.
2.) Finding a good designer is not easy. I have tried hiring on most freelancer sites with very poor results. The applicant pool is typically of low quality.
So I am wondering if others have found efficient/effective ways of going about #1 or #2, either by using certain tools or templates or by having a more clever hiring method.
Certainly creating a robust design that supports multiple screen sizes is no trivial matter. There are tools to make it easier but as with anything else, no single solution fits all developers and all projects. You say you're an experienced web developer and yet you find yourself deficient in this particular skill, so I'm not sure what to think. Maybe your strength lies more in back end programming?
In any case, I suggest looking into frameworks such as Bootstrap or Tailwind. Of course, there are also high-level solutions that don't require as much coding, e.g. WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, etc. WordPress plugins can make it very easy to apply fancy CSS effects without writing any CSS.
As for finding freelancers, I agree that's also a difficult task. I don't have any magic bullet there, other than to prioritize people with good, timely communication skills, and to avoid people on the low end of the price range since they will usually be less experienced.
I've been on both sides - working with developers for the past 5 years and leading design teams, so I get the frustration.
The key is finding someone who understands both design AND development constraints. Feel free to check out some of my work here: https://monadile.framer.website/ .Feel free to reach out via email: monadile.design(at)gmail.com or book a call via my website.
You could also do something in between - buy ready made templates and customize them. It is easier than mimic-ing and cheaper than hiring a designer. Something like https://tailwindui.com/
